Understanding Children’s Experience of Poverty: An introduction to the DEV framework

In 2002, Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) commissioned a comprehensive study on the experience and the impact of poverty on children. The resulting three-part series, Children and Poverty, provides a fascinating and thought-provoking summary of major issues from the perspective of children, youth and parents. CCF offered this study to community and colleagues as a contribution to our common field of endeavors – breaking the cycle of multigenerational poverty. The findings of the Poverty Study provided CCF with the opportunity to reflect on and debate the implications for our programs – how we develop them, work with communities, and evaluate our effectiveness. Key issues emerged from the Study that have been discussed in a set of Working Papers, of which this is the first. It defines and discusses the proposed Poverty Framework for CCF’s work with children and is of critical importance to future programming efforts.