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Acton Annual Dinner 2024 Mobile Banner

As America has grown wealthier, it has paradoxically suffered from higher levels of social decay: broken homes, loneliness, drug overdoses, decreased life expectancy. There have been many proposed solutions, but most view the hollowed-out neighborhoods of Detroit or Appalachia either as empty vessels to be filled or as backward vestiges that need to be reorganized and rescued. Instead, we should look for leaders, activists, or innovative social entrepreneurs who are working to make things better. But not just any help will do. Instead, the pathway to revitalization is to work horizontally across the landscape to strengthen the interconnected web of institutions and relations locale by locale while finding ways for each locale to work with the others. Resources can help, but without social cohesion, they are insufficient. Rather than replace these leaders with fancy new policy interventions, public policy should help communities build on what's working.

This event is organized by PovertyCure, an initiative of the Acton Institute which seeks to ground the battle against global poverty in a proper understanding of the human person and society. Prof. Easterly’s lecture is hosted concurrently with the 2024 PovertyCure Summit, an online event. To view the livestream and virtually attend the complete summit, register here.

Seth D. Kaplan, Ph.D.
Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time

Author

Seth D. Kaplan, author of Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time, is a leading expert on fragile states, societies, and communities. He is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Adviser for the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), visiting fellow with the Mercatus Center’s Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange, and consultant to international organizations such as the World Bank, U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and OECD as well as developing country governments and NGOs.

Event Details

Start Date

End Date

Location

Acton Institute
98 Fulton Street E
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
United States

Schedule

2:30 p.m. Doors open
3:00 p.m. Lecture begins
3:30 p.m. Q&A
4:00 p.m. Lecture ends
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Reception

Tickets

FREE General Admission
Includes hors d'oeuvres and beverages

Parking

Directions to the Acton Institute

Metered street parking is available. Please bring sufficient change with you for meters or pay for parking with the Motu Parking app on your smartphone (iOS and Android).

Paid parking lots are also available nearby. Please enter the building off of Sheldon Blvd.

Private Event?
Public