The face of poverty - Understanding the scope of local problem

from The Times and Democrat

By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff Writer | Monday, January 28, 2008

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Writer and political activist Michael Harrington said, "Life is lived in common, but not in community," a statement that has become a glaring reality in the underworld of poverty.

There are 37 million Americans living in poverty today, with more than 600,000 of them, including children, living in South Carolina.

The statistic was among those shared at a free workshop hosted by the United Way of the Midlands and designed to show how people from different economic classes access various resources and the "hidden rules" that guide the lives of low-income, middle-class and wealthy people.
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Kay Barlow, director of community and education for the Midlands Education and Business Alliance, conducted the training at Orangeburg's Trinity United Methodist Church based on Dr. Ruby Payne's "A Framework for Understanding Poverty."

Outreach ministries and the operation of locally based national service organizations are among the ways several community leaders in Orangeburg and Bamberg counties are working to reduce poverty.

A better-organized network of resources among service agencies and an ultimate mobilization of county-level resources in the formation of a strategic plan, however, are missing pieces in the puzzle, they say.

"Not that any one needs more committees or meetings, but a group of leaders from all areas of our county and all walks of life ... needs to form a coalition, develop a plan to address one issue at a time and then find the resources and implement the plan," said Cindy Smith, executive director of the Greater Edisto Chapter of the American Red Cross.

"I think that many do not recognize the face of poverty. An awareness campaign will tie nicely to any plan," Smith said.

The workshop was made possible through UWM's Compassion Capital Fund grant program "Partners in Compassion." The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded UWM a Compassion Capital Fund grant in October 2007.

Bunnie Lempesis, UWM director of community capacity building, said the workshop was designed to provide basic training before the grant is actually implemented to support 20 faith-based and community organizations serving at-risk youth or homeless people in six Midlands-area counties, including Orangeburg and Calhoun.

The workshop touched on the difference between generational and situational poverty, with the latter being a lack of resources because of a particular event such as death, chronic illness, divorce or alcoholism. Generational poverty is defined as having been in poverty for at least two generations.

"We mostly discussed what we already knew. I was thrust into situational poverty," said Smith, whose agency recently serviced three families who lost everything to home fires. With the ARC chapter having financial challenges of its own, Smith has said more must be done to address the issue.

"This is not a problem that can be solved without the entire community working toward the same goal. I do agree with the premise that education is the key to addressing the problem. Funding will be the issue," Smith said. "Poverty is something we face every day and many times a day at this chapter. I have taken food to homes where there was absolutely nothing in the house."

Bamberg resident Dr. Michael Watson helps run the city's Mission Cottage, a joint relief project of Trinity United Methodist Church and Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church. The outreach ministry, which is housed in what Watson said used to be a "crack house," provides a safe haven for latch-key children. Volunteers help them with homework and provide them with a hearty supper. The mission also feeds the poor and elderly, but Watson said education is indeed the key out of poverty.

"I tell all those children education is the only thing you can ever get that nobody can take away from you. We've done well. The teachers tell us that they can tell the children that go to Mission Cottage," he said, noting the workshop was "kind of a review."

"We're all bound together if we're poor," Barlow said, but if "you teach these kids and give them a good education, kids can get out of poverty."

Richard Fowler, director of the Tri-County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said substance abuse is a big culprit that often leads those in poverty to incarceration. "Addiction and poverty go hand in hand, especially if you're on the chronic side of that."

The Rev. Caesar Richburg, pastor of the Williams Chapel AME Church, said the poverty issue can be traced back to an imbalance between economics and opportunity and the collapse of the general overall support of the community in helping raise children.

"Orangeburg is about to explode with industry and the poor are going to get poorer. We don't have any more villages. Integration came and the village dissolved," he said, noting the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child," has been reversed.

"Now it takes the church to raise the village," he said.

Orangeburg resident Jodi Bates is founder of Community In Action Outreach Ministries. The ministry distributes food, clothing and donated items such as blankets and space heaters to families in need in the tri-county area of Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun. It also provides basic biblical studies and biblically based life-skills classes on topics such as budgeting, parenting and anger management.

"That feeds them holistically and sets up an accountability structure. I truly think the agencies in this community need to pull together and network. ... Be very aware of the what the other agencies are doing so we can effectively refer folks to each other ... and stop the cycle of people using the system," said Bates, noting the workshop was enlightening from the perspective that Payne had not only worked with those in poverty but had once walked in their shoes.