You are invited to join the Acton Institute on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 in Chicago at the Chicago History Museum for an advanced screening of POVERTY TRAP, a new film about how big plans to end poverty broke the promise of America and what communities are doing to renew it.

Please join us at 6:00 PM for a pre-screening cocktail hour with heavy hors d'oeuvres and a red carpet photographer.

​​​Tickets are $10. 

 OCTOBER 6th EVENT PROGRAM

• ​6:00 PM | Reception with heavy hors d'oeuvres

• ​7:00 pm | Screening of POVERTY TRAP

• ​8:45 pm | Q&A with filmmakers

​​EVENT LOCATION

PARKING

Public parking is conveniently located one block north of the Museum at Clark and LaSalle Streets. Enter on Stockton Drive

​​EVENT ATTIRE

​​The event dress code is business casual.

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FILM SYNOPSIS

From the creators of the award-winning documentary Poverty, Inc. comes a new film about social and material poverty in the United States. 

POVERTY TRAP examines how big plans to end poverty broke the promise of America—and what communities are doing to renew it.

From the legacy of urban renewal and the War on Poverty to today's sprawling network of social programs, many attempts to fight poverty have kept people stuck. As Lee Moore of Jackson, Mississippi puts it: "It's hard to make it out."

Drawing on more than 130 interviews across 16 states, the film traces a sweeping story of policy failure and lost communities, but also redemption—finding purpose after prison, dignity reclaimed from addiction and homelessness, and revival around “a little garden” in South Dallas.

POVERTY TRAP exposes the tragedy of treating human struggle as a technical problem to be managed and solved by experts. It points toward something different: the untapped capacity of people to transform their own lives and communities. 
 

ABOUT THE ACTON INSTITUTE

​The Acton Institute is a Grand Rapids–based research and educational organization that equips leaders to build a free and virtuous society. For more than three decades, Acton has advanced the idea that genuine human flourishing depends on both economic freedom and a vibrant moral culture.

​Within Acton, the Center for Social Flourishing focuses on practical solutions to social and material poverty by strengthening the institutions closest to people’s daily lives: civil society, economic opportunity, family, and the church. The Center engages institution builders, entrepreneurs, and local leaders across the United States who are intent on making their communities places where people thrive.

​Through film, research, conferences, and a growing partner network, the Center spurs new thinking, collaboration, and innovation across sectors, including education, health care, technology, and financial and social services, with special attention to the indispensable role churches play in the neighborhoods they serve.

​To learn more about the Acton Institute and the Center for Social Flourishing, visit acton.org.