UMMA Center

Michelle's talk is designed to leave people with a clear set of ways they can fight poverty and transform our region. She likes to say, "If I can connect one person with food to one person who is hungry, I've already changed the world." She would like every one of us to be an agent of social transformation. Her talk will include:

1) Her background (Chicagoan born and raised)

2) How Rotary has impacted her life (RYE 6440 - Brazil & Germany, academic and professional focus on increasing human development indicators).

3) Her current work as director of development at UMMA, a non-profit fighting poverty (and winning) in Chicagoland

4) Why and how this crisis has come to be, right here in Chicagoland

5) How Rotary's model (business + community = ending poverty) is exactly how we are going to end poverty in Chicagoland, where we have the 3rd highest levels of extreme poverty in America.

6) The key to ending poverty: education, living-wage jobs, and empowering individuals to empower their communities.

Michelle Gale de Oliveira

Director of Development

UMMA Center

221 Washington Street

Waukegan,IL 60085