The Center for Poverty Research is at the University of Kentucky. James P. Ziliak, who holds the Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics, is director.

The Center for the Study of Urban Poverty is at the University of California, Los Angeles. The director is Abel Valenzuela Jr., professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, who has expertise in urban poverty and immigration issues.

The Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality is at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. Charles Varner is the associate director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Contact through the website.

The Center for Comparative Family Welfare and Poverty Research is at the University of California Berkeley. The director is Neil Gilbert, Milton and Gertrude Chernin Professor of Social Welfare and Social Services, who wrote Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility.

Brenda Branson founded Focus Ministries after experiencing domestic abuse. Read a September/October 2004 Q&A from Christianity Today. Contact her in Elmhurst, Ill.

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth and families and on sustainable community development. Michael Ettlinger is the director. Contact Amy Sterndale, communications director.

The Rev. Chuck Dahm is a Dominican priest and directs the Domestic Violence Outreach program for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He is the author of Parish Ministry in a Hispanic Community, which includes a section on violence and machismo.

Shailaja Dixit is executive director of Narika, an organization that offers aid to South Asian victims of domestic violence and conducts outreach to local clergy in Sikh and Muslim worship centers.

Reshma Yunus is one of the co-founding directors of SEMAH, a Muslim-oriented organization that works to end domestic violence. It has held workshops with local faith leaders about their response to domestic violence. It is based in Newark, California.