Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation [ [http://www.jrf.org.uk Joseph Rowntree Foundation website] ] is a British social policy research and development charity, seeking to better understand the causes of social difficulties such as poverty and housing and explore ways of overcoming them.

History

It is one of the four Rowntree trusts established by Joseph Rowntree (philanthropist) and was founded in 1904 [ [http://www.jrf.org.uk/about-us/history.asp History of JRF on official website.] ] .

Directors

In 1988, Richard Best became director of the Foundation, holding the post until 2006. The current director is Julia Unwin [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/may/16/socialexclusion.guardiansocietysupplement Guardian Interview with Julia Unwin: "In search of evils: Identifying social ills is essential to combat them, the new chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation tells Alison Benjamin - and explains why the organisation must wield much greater influence", "The Guardian", Wednesday May 16 2007] (Online version includes correction and a portrait). ] .

Activity

JRF works by funding research and taking forward the lessons learned, engaging with policy-makers and practitioners to develop better policies and practices. However, it is politically neutral and completely independent from the UK political parties. Its research reports are highly influential. It currently has 776 publications in print. Researchers include Mark Shucksmith and Ash Amin.

Roland Hurst and the "Findings" series

In 1989 Roland Hurst, himself a Quaker, joined the Foundation as Director of Information Services. Sharing the founder's vision in wanting scholarly inquiry to have direct results and to lead to changes in policies and practices, he sought to disseminate and publicise the results of Rowntree-funded research. To achieve this, he introduced the "Findings" series which summarised research reports, some of them long and intellectually demanding, into four pages of lucid well-presented text. [Michael Irwin "Of Town and Gown: Roland Hurst (Obituary)" Education Guardian November 1991] A recent publication in the "Findings" series is "The impact of the Supporting People programme on adults with learning disabilities" (August 2007) [ [http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialcare/2106.asp "The impact of the Supporting People programme on adults with learning disabilities" - downloadable research report summary] ] .

JRF Current programme areas

* [http://www.socialevils.org.uk What are today's social evils?] : a consultation with the UK public to determine the most pressing problems facing the UK today.
*Poverty and disadvantage: This programme is interested in factors that contribute to - and result from - poverty; that protect people from poverty; that can help to reduce or eradicate poverty; and in identifying barriers that prevent such measures from being effective.
*Public Interest in Poverty Issues (PIPI): The objective of PIPI is to secure and strengthen public support for eradicating poverty to ensure that current and future governments sustain a programme on UK poverty reduction.
*What will it take to end child poverty in the UK?: Our aim- To produce costed options for ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.

ee also

*Derwenthorpe
*Poverty in the United Kingdom
*Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion

References