Holding the line

Celebrating 25 years of the Economic Progress Institute

By Jennifer Pereira | March 04, 2025

Linda Katz does not recall exactly when or how she and Nancy Gewirtz met. They crossed paths often in the social justice circles in which each worked, often overlapping at the George Wiley Center and Parents for Progress. And in 1999, they created something based on a shared idea - The Poverty Institute. As an entity, it was so powerful that it has continued to endure for 25 years, even without their hands-on involvement.

Linda graduated from the University of Rochester in 1974 with an English degree and a penchant for social justice. “My mother was a peace and civil rights activist and I was molded by the same issues.” When encouraged to study law, she did but was certainly not interested in being in a courtroom. While in law school at Boston College, she started a legal services bureau, a clinical program whereby law students could get real training in representing people. “It all crystalized for me that this was the kind of work I wanted to do. I had two choices upon graduation in 1978: Augusta, GA and Providence, RI. She took the job at Rhode Island Legal Services.

Around that same time, Nancy Gewirtz was joining the Rhode Island College faculty as an assistant professor responsible for implementing accreditation for the Master of Social Work program. She was the MSW department’s first chair. Her education included a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1967, a master of social welfare degree in 1970; a master of public affairs in 1983 and a doctorate in political science in 1987.

Dr. Gewirtz continually wrote, spoke, and advocated in classrooms, at demonstrations, and in legislative halls to improve the lot of disadvantaged people who were not only in great need, but were so often hidden from public view. In the meantime, Linda was ardently advocating for social justice, wherever and whenever it was necessary.

On behalf of my father, I must hold the line. On behalf of the two powerhouses Linda Katz and Nancy Gewirtz, I must hold the line. For their passion and vision and that of others who have chosen to serve, we must ALL hold the line.
- Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, Executive Director, Economic Progress Institute

In 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) - AKA welfare reform - was passed into law, delegating greater control of welfare policy to the states, resulting in a great deal of competition for designing and implementing a state approach. The Poverty Institute came out of that work; Katz and Gewirtz teamed up with RIPEC as the political battle ensued.

Succeeding with the parent-friendly cash assistance program that came out of Rhode Island welfare reform, is an accomplishment that Linda is most proud of. “People don’t like poor people, and they don’t understand these programs. It’s still a boot-straps mentality - the assumption is that poor people are lazy, when evidence shows that if parents can be trained and educated to get jobs, they are motivated to get off welfare.”

The very first grant that the Poverty Institute received was during this time of welfare reform—from the Rhode Island Foundation, and the Foundation has supported them every year since.

Linda moved into a full-time paid position at the Poverty Institute in 2001, after years of volunteering. It was a great loss when, in 2004, Nancy Gewirtz died of pancreatic cancer, but the organization sustained skilled leadership in Kate Brewster and Rachel Flum as executive directors. “We never stopped doing something - there was never a lack of issues, so we kept doing more without more staff, and it worked,” says Linda.

In 2011, after years of facing state legislators who shut down when you said you were with the Poverty Institute, the organization rebranded itself as the Economic Progress Institute, doing the same work but flipping it from a negative perspective, i.e. poverty, to a positive one - economic progress.

Linda tells me her brother has asked her more than once why she keeps doing this, that ‘it seems like you don’t get anywhere’. She always responds with “can you imagine how bad it would be if we did nothing. Sure you get riled a lot, but when you win, it’s great.

Linda talks about the wins:

Education materials including guide to benefits, helping agencies get the material out to end users in various languages
Transparencies in tax reporting
Medicaid advocacy
Convened racial justice group long before DEI became popular
Pushed back when Trump threatened ACA
Proactive healthcare coalition against consumer fraud

“In so many ways, we prevented bad things from happening and promoted the good things. We just had to chip away at the bad bills year after year.”

As they celebrated their 25th year in 2024, under the leadership of Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, they still compile the Rhode Island Standard of Need (RISN) that began in 2000 to advocate for economic progress for low-and modest-income Rhode Islanders.

The RISN, published every other year, answers five fundamental questions about the economic security of Rhode Islanders:

What is the cost of meeting basic needs for families and individuals in Rhode Island?
How do state and federal programs help households meet the cost of basic needs?
What are the racial and ethnic inequities in the ability of Rhode Island families to meet their basic needs?
How have policy and program changes in 2023 and 2024 helped improve economic security for Rhode Islanders?
How can Rhode Island’s policymakers sustain the progress of the past two years?

At the 13th annual policy and budget conference, Nelson-Davies welcomed attendees and stressed this year’s theme: Hold the Line for Equity and Justice. “This is not a slogan,” she says, “it is to sound an alarm, a call to action.” She went on to describe her journey to Rhode Island, becoming a full-time student at RIC 25 years ago when her father sent his 16-year-old daughter to safety during the Liberian Civil War. “On behalf of my father, I must hold the line. On behalf of the two powerhouses Linda Katz and Nancy Gewirtz, I must hold the line. For their passion and vision and that of others who have chosen to serve, we must ALL hold the line.”