FARMINGTON – The University of Maine at Farmington will present a series on rural poverty, beginning with a panel discussion at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, in North Dining Hall of Olsen Student Center.

The series is free and open to the public.

The panel discussion looks at “Poverty in Rural Maine: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Panelists will be Fenwick Fowler, executive director of Western Maine Community Action, and Lynn Ploof-Davis, director of UMF’s Upward Bound Program.

They’ll address what drives families into poverty, what helps them get out and the role of education in escaping poverty.

Other presentations will include:

• March 24: “Teen Homelessness and Hanging Out: Not a Complete Unknown, Still a Rolling Stone,” with Judith Rawlings, executive director of Positive Turning Points for Youth, and Ernest Gurney, a rural outreach worker for New Beginnings Youth Outreach. It will include information and a discussion on assisting the homeless teens in area towns. It will be 6 p.m. in North Dining Hall.

• March 29: “Mitigating the Effects of Poverty on Adolescent Development: A Curriculum for Resilience,” with Elyse Pratt, a UMF alumna and a graduate-degree candidate at Boston College. It will be 6 p.m. in North Dining Hall.

April 9: “Generativity as a Predictor of Reactions to the Homeless,” with Steven Quackenbush, a UMF assistant professor of psychology. It will cover recent research into student attitudes about the homeless and will be at 12:05 p.m. in North Dining Hall.

April 14: “Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood: Is This Your Neighborhood?,” with UMF students Amanda Coffin and Chelsea Goulart, Maine Campus Compact civic fellows. This will be part of the UMF Symposium Day. For the time and location of this program, people can call 778-7821.

The series is sponsored by The Institute on Rural Poverty and the UMF Diversity Committee. For more information, people can contact the Institute at 778-7178.