Illinois Sen. Barack Obama traveled to a predominantly black neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to outline an agenda to help eradicate poverty in urban communities across America.

"We stand not 10 miles from the seat of power in the most affluent nation on Earth. Decisions are made on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that shape lives and set the course of history," Obama said, speaking at the Town Hall Education Arts & Recreation Center in Southeast Washington, D.C. "With the stroke of a pen, billions are spent on programs and policies; on tax breaks for those who didn’t need them and a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged."

"Debates rage, and accusations fly, and at the end of each day, the petty sniping is what lights up the evening news. And yet here, on the other side of the river, every other child in Anacostia lives below the poverty line," Obama said,  Too many do not graduate and too many more do not find work. Some join gangs, and others fall to their gunfire."

Obama is campaigning to become the first black American elected president of the United States. He delivered his speech Wednesday in Southeast Washington, D.C., home to generations of black residents, a place where some black families are living in poverty, where crime is an ongoing concern, and where many are experiencing economic hardships.

Obama’s speech, entitled "Changing The Odds For Urban America," was meant to underscore his intention to reach out to black folks and America’s poor, both during the campaign and beyond -- as president.

"The streets here are close to our capital, but far from the people it represents," Obama said. "These Americans cannot hire lobbyists to roam the halls of Congress on their behalf, and they cannot write thousand-dollar campaign checks to make their voices heard. They suffer most from a politics that has been tipped in favor of those with the most money and influence and power."

If elected, Obama said, he would invest $1 billion over five years for jobs programs, help bring businesses back to inner cities and create an affordable housing trust fund that would add as many as 112,000 new units in mixed income neighborhoods. He said less than one percent of the $250 billion in venture capital that’s invested each year goes to minority businesses.

"What this agenda to combat urban poverty attempts to do is not easy, and it will not happen overnight," Obama said. "Changing the odds in our cities will require humility in what we can accomplish and patience with our progress.

"But most importantly," he said, "it will require the sustained commitment of the president of the United States, and that is why I will also appoint a new director of urban policy who will cut through the disorganized bureaucracy that currently exists and report directly to me on how these efforts are going, on what’s working and what’s not."

If elected to the White House, Obama said he would also expand a pioneering program called the Nurse-Family Partnership that offers home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income mothers and pregnant women. He said he would expand the program to 570,000 first-time mothers each year.

Obama said the late President Ronald Reagan "launched his assault on welfare queens," and President George W. Bush has cut programs to reduce poverty, job training and drug abuse, and child services.

"What’s most overwhelming about urban poverty is that it’s so difficult to escape. It’s isolating, and it’s everywhere," Obama said. "If you are an African-American child unlucky enough to be born into one of these neighborhoods, you are most likely to start life hungry or malnourished."

"If you can’t find a job because the most successful businessman in your neighborhood is a drug dealer, you’re more likely to join that gang yourself," he said. "Opportunity is scarce, role models are few, and there is little contact with the normalcy of life outside those streets."

Candice Tolliver, a spokeswoman for Obama, said Obama wanted to use D.C. to make his point about ending urban poverty.

"Sen. Obama wants to drive home his message that in Washington, D.C., there are problems and challenges with health care, education and job creation just a few blocks from the White House, and that is totally unacceptable," Tolliver told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Urban communities are struggling."

Tolliver said while government can’t solve all the problems of poverty, government can provide the necessary resources for people to help themselves.

"Poverty is a disease that requires a holistic approach," she said.

Obama told a packed audience Wednesday that disenfranchised Americans need support from America’s leaders.

Obama described a highly-touted program called the Harlem Children’s Zone -- "an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck, anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children in a neighborhood where they were never supposed to have a chance."

"The philosophy behind the project is simple -- if poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation," Obama said. "We have to heal that entire community. And we have to focus on what actually works.

Obama wasn’t the only presidential candidate talking about poverty Wednesday.

Democrat John Edwards was wrapping up his eight-state poverty tour with stops in Virginia and Kentucky, the latter where Democratic icon Robert F. Kennedy spoke nearly 40 years ago in his plea to help the nation's forgotten.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, said lack of access to health care isn't limited to the Appalachian region; it's a national problem. He told a group of volunteer doctors that they shouldn't have to shoulder the burden of indigent health care alone.

"We have to do something about this," he said. "This is not okay."

Obama, who is higher in the polls than Edwards but less than Sen. Hillary Clinton, has already raised $32 million in donations. His campaign expects to increase its contributions significantly in September.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Oprah Winfrey is hosting a fund-raiser -- "a must-attend event," the paper said -- at Winfrey’s home in Santa Barbara on Sept. 8.

"Getting in the door costs $2,300 --- the maximum individual contribution for the primary season. But, as is usually the case at such high-profile shindigs, there are incentives to gain a little extra face-time with the candidate," according to the Times.

"Those who can tap friends and relatives for contributions to Obama's presidential campaign that total at least $25,000 gain entree to a VIP reception; those responsible for at least $50,000 in donations make the cut for a VIP dinner," the Times reported.

In the meantime, while Obama waits to mingle with Hollywood’s elite, he stood in one of Washington, D.C’s more economically challenged communities Wednesday and talked of transforming America for people of color.

"It’s time to change the odds for neighborhoods all across America," Obama said. "And that’s why when I’m president, the first part of my plan to combat urban poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in 20 cities across the country."