‘Project Promise’ raises awareness to poverty issue

from The Appleton Post Crescent

By Kathy Walsh Nufer
Post-Crescent staff writer

Barbara Ehrenreich had to experience what it was like to live in poverty.

The journalist descended into the ranks of the working poor by taking minimum-wage jobs in three cities, a month at a time. In the process, she experienced first-hand the struggle to make ends meet.

During the next several weeks, Fox Cities public libraries are scheduling talks featuring “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” a New York Times bestseller, written by Ehrenreich.

Ehrenreich’s book is central to the Fox Cities “Project Promise” poverty awareness initiative. Part of the four-month program is a “community read” of her book chronicling daily life for millions of Americans working at low-paying jobs.

Speaking to more than 250 business and community leaders at a kickoff breakfast for the campaign Thursday, Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna noted that while the city has participated in the program once before, “Nickel and Dimed” is the first “Fox Cities Reads” in recognition that this issue does not affect just one municipality.

“Many things unite the Fox Cities into a broader community and unfortunately one of them is poverty,” Hanna said. “’Nickel and Dimed’ speaks powerfully to concerns in our society and how people get by or don’t get by.”

According to a recent LIFE study, an estimated 21,600 local residents live in poverty based on the 2006 federal poverty level of $19,350 for a family of four.

Study sponsors are United Way Fox Cities, The Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Fox Cities Economic Development Partnership and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.

“Nickel and Dimed,” selected in a public vote last spring, was to be the Appleton Public Library’s second planned “community read” but has since become part of the broader Project Promise effort sponsored by the Community Health Action Team led by ThedaCare, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and the Appleton Public Library Foundation.

“All Fox Cities libraries are embracing this,” said Michael Kenney, Appleton Public Library spokesman.

Fox Valley Technical College students also are reading the book in their second semester classes.

“The purpose behind ‘Fox Cities Reads’ is to get people reading and talking,” Kenney said. “We’re trying to drive home awareness, education and action. Perhaps if eyes are opened that poverty exists here, we may, in our own way, be able to help resolve this.”

The book can be checked out at a participating library or purchased at Conkey’s and other bookstores. The Appleton Public Library has 350 copies available.

Those who wish to participate in Fox Cities Reads should contact their library. The community book read will conclude with a visit from Ehrenreich April 17. She will speak at 7 p.m. at the Appleton Public Library.

In addition to the “book read,” Project Promise offers diversity circles to discuss poverty in the Fox Cities, poverty simulations put on by CAP Services and financial education programs by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and the Financial and Information Service Center (FISC).

Project Promise will conclude with an action forum from 6:30 to 9 p.m. April 30 at the Appleton Public Library.

Kathy Walsh Nufer can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 290, or knufer@postcrescent.com.