[Louisiana] Attacking poverty at its roots

from The Daily Advertiser

All parishes search for solutions as part of Blanco's STOP initiative
Alexandria Burris
aburris@theadvertiser.com

ST. MARTINVILLE - Paulma Johnson believes that poverty can be defeated.

"Everything is possible if you got the right attitude and resources - if you can dedicate the right resources toward the children, which are our greatest asset," said Johnson, a St. Martin Parish School Board member. "We need economic development. We need education."

Johnson was one of 12 citizens who came together to discuss the causes and solutions to poverty in St. Martin Parish on Thursday afternoon at the St. Martin Parish Government Building.

Their community-centered coalition was the result of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's Solutions to Poverty, or STOP, initiative - a state- wide campaign to get community stakeholders engaged in conversations about poverty.

The conversations are happening in all 64 parishes, with people like Johnson trying to find solutions that attack state poverty at its roots.

They do it with the hope of reducing the 20.3 percent statistic that hangs like a noose around the state's neck.

Lafayette already has its coalition, which has held meetings on the issue, and now St. Martin Parish is developing its own.

Nearly 21 percent of St. Martin's population lives in poverty.

The citizens at Thursday's meeting left no stone unturned. Topics ranged from transportation, abstinence programs in schools, deadbeat fathers and teen pregnancy.

People at the meeting came from all walks of a life. There was a DARE police officer, a nonprofit executive director and state workers all participating in the conversation.

"We are all in the same boat," said Johnson of why he got involved.

He said he heard the governor's call and decided to get on board.

"Too often, we have elected officials, and they aren't really concerned with the people. They are more concerned with programs and money," Johnson said. "She was willing to change the plight of the state from ignorance and deprivation from opportunity."

Merculus Ellis, project coordinator for the St. Martin Family Resource Center, knows poverty.

Ellis, who headed the discussion, said he faced poverty as a small child, growing up in a single-parent home in Lake Charles. "If there was one solution, it would have to be education in a rounded way," he said. That means educating those in poverty on everything from finances to sexually transmitted diseases.

Tackling poverty is hard, Ellis said.

"It didn't happen in one day, and it's not going to be fixed in one day," he said.