PROVIDENCE – The Fund for Community Progress has named U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and Poverty Institute co-founder Linda Katz to receive its 2009 Profile in Change Awards.

Reed, the senior senator from Rhode Island, is a longtime advocate of low-income housing; heating and energy-efficiency assistance; civil rights and affirmative action, including federal set-asides for minority-owned and women-owned businesses; education; the school-lunch and school-breakfast programs; Medicare, Medicaid and preventive health care; and social services.

Katz founded The Poverty Institute in 1999, together with Nancy Gewirtz, and became a full-time staffer in 2001. As policy director at the institute – now housed at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work – she is responsible for legislative and policy analysis and advocacy on a wide range of programs and public benefits, including welfare, health care, child care and employment and training. She is the lead author of the Rhode Island Standard of Need and the Guide to Government Assistance Programs.

She previously had served as health policy director at the Rhode Island Health Center Association; director of the Rhode Island Disability Law Center; and a staff lawyer at R.I. Legal Services. A graduate of the University of Rochester, N.Y., Katz received her J.D. from Boston College.

They will be honored at the fund’s annual awards breakfast, which also will celebrate the winners of the Changemakers Awards and the completion of the fund’s 2008 Campaign.

The event is slated for Monday, May 4, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., at Waterplace Restaurant, One Finance Way, overlooking the circular pool at WaterPlace Park. The fee – $25 per person, payable at the event – includes a continental breakfast. Those wishing to attend are asked to reserve a place, no later than April 28, by calling (401) 941-7100 or e-mailing info@fundcp.org.

The Fund for Community Progress is a fundraising network that was established in 1982 to “democratize philanthropy in Rhode Island.” Today, it helps support 27 local grassroots organizations, in fields from health care to housing, social services and advocacy. To learn more about the fund and its member agencies, visit www.FundCP.org.

The Poverty Institute – housed at the Rhode Island College (RIC) School of Social Work – is a nonpartisan research and policy group that was founded in 1999 to promote budget and tax policies that are “equitable and adequate to fund vital public services” and defend the economic security of low- and modest-income Rhode Islanders. Additional information is available at www.PovertyInstitute.org.