Knowledge of Poverty
Before we started our Horizons work, I’d be willing to bet most people in Armour didn’t spend that much time thinking about poverty. Sure, we’re a community that is pretty focused on helping others and doing the right thing … but the term “poverty” didn’t come to mind often.
Since working through our Study Circles and LeadershipPlenty (the first two phases of Horizons), I think attitudes have changed. Poverty isn’t as simple as having a low income level, being unemployed or living on a very fixed income. It has many forms. And reducing poverty isn’t a simple task. You can’t just throw money at it and fix it.
During our Study Circles especially, I think our knowledge about poverty changed a lot. We shared ideas and information and learned things like many of our senior citizens live on Social Security checks that are $500, or less, each month. We received demographic data on wages that shows that many of our residents have to work two or three jobs to support their families. And people here rely on a number of programs to improve their quality of life … things like our local food pantry and the CHIPS program, which provides health insurance for children of families whose income levels are too high for Medicaid, but not high enough to pay for private health insurance.
Reducing proverty can take many forms. Making our community a cleaner, safer place helps and we’ve been working on that this year. We’ve also been promoting efforts to shop locally. If our retailers prosper, our community does, too. If local stores have strong sales, they may need to hire more employees, which translates into more income flowing through the community.
One specific example that comes to mind is the Horizons presentation given by Doug Cunningham. Doug is a a former Nebraska State Senator from Wausau and the Consultant-Director for the Hometown Merchants Association. He shared information about big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and the negative effects they have on small towns. After Doug’s talk, I heard several people talk about how they never realized how shopping out of town impacts our local economy. More than one person shared how they’ve now made a conscious effort to avoid those shopping trips to bigger towns like Mitchell and Sioux Falls.
We’ve got people thinking, which is a good start.
What else? Horizons participants please add your comments and share your opinions on ways Armour’s knowledge about poverty has changed. What evidence do you have of this?
November 21st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
I really like your commentary on poverty and think you really nailed it.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:11 am
During the study circles there were many eyes that were opened to how many citizens live in that poverty level. What items they give up - food or medicine? Especially in our elderly sector. A few years back I visited with an older citizen of our community and realized that person was closing their house up and living in their kitchen because they could not afford heating any other room in their house. This same person whose family sent money at Christmas would use that money to buy baking supplies to send her family baked goods for Christmas. The individual finally swallowed pride and applied for energy assistance and was then able to live in other rooms of their house.