Summit on Poverty aims to foster self-sufficiency

from The Fort Worth Star Telegram

By TRACI SHURLEY
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Members of the newly formed Tarrant Coalition Against Poverty want to focus on doing more than putting a Band-Aid on the problems of the county's poor.

So the group of government, business and social service professionals will gather this week to look at what helps people achieve financial stability and what doesn't.

Their Summit on Poverty is planned for Thursday at Tarrant County Public Health's facility at 1100 S. Main St. in Fort Worth.

"There's so many of these folks that are living right on the edge, and all it takes is just one illness or one car breaking down, and then they snowball," said Sue Matkin, a United Way of Tarrant County assistant vice president who is part of the coalition. "If we could kind of address that group of people, maybe we could begin to make a difference."

Lylette Pharr, director of community outreach for the Tarrant Area Food Bank, who is leading the coalition, said many of the people accessing Tarrant County nonprofits' services aren't able to become self-sufficient and must keep returning for help with food and other necessities.

It's that situation that led the members to wonder what needs to be done differently, she said.

They have chosen to focus the one-day conference on two issues that a community task force called Tarrant County Together identified in the late 1990s. Those issues -- economic development and adult basic education -- continue to be barriers to self-sufficiency, Pharr said.

The conference will also feature a workshop led by John Kretzmann, the co-director of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Matkin said the new coalition's aims fit well with a national United Way initiative to increase financial stability for the poor. It will also build on adult literacy and financial-education programs that the nonprofit has already started in North Texas. One of those programs, which started in Arlington, is to raise community awareness of the earned-income tax credit.

A report released Wednesday by the national Corporation for Enterprise Development suggests that the coalition will have plenty of challenges. The organization, which promotes expanding economic opportunities and alleviating poverty, gave Texas an "F" for the financial stability of its residents. Researchers said the state ranked 43rd in terms of asset poverty, a measure of what proportion of residents have the minimum wealth needed for security and mobility.

Pharr said the coalition hopes to develop strategies for helping low-income people not only get their necessities, but also to begin to achieve some long-term financial goals.

"Poverty is not just about not enough income. It's also about not having enough assets," Pharr said. "If you don't have assets, you likely don't have a credit rating where you can get a home loan or have a dependable car or have things you can pass on from generation to generation."

GET INVOLVED

For more information about the Tarrant Coalition Against Poverty, call Lylette Pharr at 817-332-9177, ext. 118.
Traci Shurley, 817-548-5494
tshurley@star-telegram.com