TO FIGHT POVERTY, THEY ARM THEMSELVES WITH A WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE

13 kids try to get the facts out and convince others that they can make a difference.

To many Americans, poverty seems too much of a problem for them to tackle. Instead, they push it out of their minds and comfort themselves by saying, "What can I do? I'm only one person."

Unless you have experienced it, poverty is difficult to comprehend. Unfortunately, in 1994, more than 16 million children in America had to live with the problem, 159,000 of whom lived in Indiana.

A group of Boston-area kids is on a mission to educate America's public about poverty. The Poverty Project consists of 13 teen-agers who interview politicians, professors, legislators and community workers to try to figure out why poverty exists in their state today.

Adult mentors help the teens gather and organize their research on poverty. The mentors come from organizations such as The Freedom House, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Center for Labor and Market Studies, The Boston Foundation and the Massachusetts Legislature Children's Caucus, the Boston YWCA and Youth Voice Collaborative.

The project was established by Kid Company, a radio program in Boston that airs on WBZ-AM, and Youth Voice Collaborative, a new program to educate kids about the media, in conjunction with the PBS broadcast of the TV documentary America's War on Poverty.

One member of the Poverty Project, 12-year-old Rachel Burstein, said: "The main purpose of this project was to alert the public to what is going on and use the information that we have to let kids know that they really can do something about poverty."

Promoting this program by radio and the Internet, this group of teens hopes to inform the entire country of the research.

Recently, Children's Express talked with seven members about their research. They expressed the need to find a solution and offered some ideas.

STEREOTYPES VS. FACTS

JASON REAVIS, 16, Dorchester: Most of us here in Boston would think the person in poverty is the black person. In Boston, that is incorrect. In fact, Latinos are two times more likely to be in poverty than black people.

MEERA HYUN, 13, Brighton: They're like the invisible race and nobody notices.

KAITLYN SCHERER, 13, Dorchester: Before (the project), I thought that people who were (living in) poverty maybe just had an alcohol problem.

But now I know that it's much more; it covers more broad issues. There's so many root causes. I think one would be lack of education.

RACHEL BURSTEIN, 12, Winchester: One of the specifics we found was that of all the people living below the poverty threshold in Massachusetts, the percent of people without a high school diploma in a single-parent family was 44.9 percent, which is really high.

KAITLYN: A lot of people depict the poor in Boston and nationwide as people who are just lazy, people who are on welfare, who could be getting out to work but they are just lying on the couch or whatever.

We found that that really was not so. About a third of all people living within the poverty threshold in Massachusetts were classified as working poor, and another 11 percent were looking for jobs.

Most of the people who are not working, (the reason) was because they were single parents, mostly single mothers, who have children and who have to have some sort of care for their children.

NEED FOR SOLUTIONS

JAMES SAUNDRES, 13, Dorchester: From the '60s to now, which is about 35 years, (poverty) has nearly doubled.

RACHEL: We need to do something because welfare accounts for approximately 1 percent of the federal budget, but it's getting so much attention now, and the reason for that is because it's not working.

KAITLYN: (There's talk about) bringing back orphanages and things like that. I don't think they're going to work, and I think people need to realize how big this problem is.

RACHEL: If we don't stop it now, we're just going to have to deal with it 20 years from now. So you know it's going to be a problem that lives with us unless we try to do something to stop it.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

RACHEL: The legislators really need to think about putting in other programs that would let people go back to work without giving up their child's care.

LAURA ROBERTS, 14, Winchester: (They need to) start up different programs to help people in poverty, like have a certain program to help people who don't have jobs and get another program for people who don't have much education.

RACHEL: Our economy is so much different today than it was 50 years ago. It is much more white-collar-based instead of blue-collar. You really need more skills in order to survive in our American society today.

KATE JUICA, 15, Newton: For example, these days when you want to get a job, you usually have to have computer skills. Give (poor people) hands-on computer training programs to help them find a job as a secretary or whatever.

JASON: If I were president, first I would take anyone who is homeless that wanted to get a job, I would take him or her to a workshop and learn the trade of building a house. And then have a bunch of them get together and build a couple of houses for temporary housing.

Then I would put them in another program that would teach them computer skills and also house skills, so they would be able to cook food, and other necessary job skills so they can get off and get a meaningful job making $10-plus an hour so they can go out and get their own apartment or home.

WHAT KIDS CAN DO

JAMES: Find out all the information you can about the subject of poverty. Not only that, talk to your state representatives, senators and even write letters to the president. Just do anything that you can to get involved in it.

JASON: Maybe you can talk to your school principal about setting up some type of fund-raiser or just like a canned food drive for a local charity group.

KAITLYN: And another thing is, don't give up. People might think you're stupid, you're crazy - you know, just the saying, "What can you do? You're only one person." Yeah, and you're a kid. But when you guys get put together, you can really do something great.

EDITED BY: Erica Bellamy, 14.