My blog for this course will be to discuss the chapters in Families in Poverty. This week the chapter highlights 3 different families living in poverty. Their stories were very real – I personally know people who fit each of those stories. This morning I stopped for coffee at McDonalds. They woman who handed me the coffee out the drive-thru window clearly could be identified as poverty-stricken. She had that look – bad teeth, poorly cut hair, haggard look. I wondered if she was worried about her children – this morning there was a 2 hour school delay due to weather. What would she do? How did she manage her “non-standard work schedule?” These books will introduce us to the structure of poverty. What can we do to change the structure of our society to help these families? I think these case studies in this chapter make it pretty clear that it was not deficiencies on the part of the individuals that led to their situations of poverty but rather circumstances beyond their control. The control lies in the hands of all of us - what responsibility do we have to be involved in policies that will help these kinds of people? One of the things we will focus on in this course is social policy for families. As you work your way through these next weeks, think about this. Be creative – what kinds of things can we do as a community to change the face of family poverty??????
Crystal Hoffman said,
January 25, 2007 at 4:00 am
The question, “what kinds of things can we do as a community to change the face of poverty?” poses many options. These options however will not necesarially be able to help anyone, unless they are willing to be helped. We as a community can reach out to those in poverty by donating our time and resources, such as extra clothing, or canned goods to be used in shelters or given to those in need of them. We cannot, however, “forcefeed” the help to them. The clothing and food type help may sound extremely cliche, but it is true. Another option may be to give of our time to babysit for little or no money in return, or volunteer to help out at an after school program for the children of poverty stricken families in our area. This in turn allows the parent or parents to be able to work, and not have to worry about what kinds of trouble their children may be getting themselves into if they were left to care for themselves unsupervised.
Susan Warner said,
January 26, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Crystal, these are good comments however, I would like to pose one question to you – do you think this is the root of the problem, i.e. the unwillingness of the poor to accept help? You give some good examples of things we can do such as clothing, food, and childcare. These are all structural issues that would help families in poverty. I am just curious about your “forcefeed” comment and what you mean by that.
Brendon Bayley said,
January 28, 2007 at 9:20 pm
While I realize that there are things that individuals and communities can do to help the poor, I believe that corporations could lend an even greater hand to join forces in communities that have great need. For example’s sake, what if McDonalds donated more money towards running some sort of low cost, or “corporatly subsidised” childcare for the parents that were employed by thier company. I know this may sound silly but think for a moment, many of the areas that McDonald’s are located are business districts adjacent to lower-income neighborhoods, many of the people employed at a place such as McDonalds, are employed there by necessity; meaning, they work there because they have to,( i.e. single mothers, college students). Of the people who work at McDonald’s, those with children could pay a lower fee for childcare, which could allow them to work longer shifts (which benefits McDonalds), and not suffer the burden of childcare. I point to corporations, because the biggest problem we face in social service is money. Corporations have large revenues, and are public companies who often claim some sort of regard for the community in which they operate. I believe corporations and individuals are ultimately equally as greedy, and it would, in my opinion take more to motivate hundreds of people to give a few dollars, than one corporation to donate (in any way, for any purpose) a significant amount of money. Call me naive, but I do believe that under the right kind of pressure from customers, community members and leaders, and stockholders, (corporations are often publically owned companies), corporations could be led to support services such as this. This is just an example, however impractical it may be, of a way that it is possible to get money towards these types of projects, which after all, is the toughest part of the social services industry.
Anna Reiskytl said,
January 29, 2007 at 1:50 am
In response to Crystal’s comment…
The problem of poverty runs much deeper than any food or clothes pantry could ever begin to address. The problem of poverty is that those who are poor generally have few options to improve their own situation. It is very rare that people simply do not want to receive help; most people would jump at a real opportunity to improve their standard of living, both for themselves and for their children. The trouble is that “handout” types of assistance are both degrading to their dignity, and fail to solve the problem in the long run. In order to address the problem of poverty, it is not enough to simply create more opportunities for people to access emergency asssistance, though this is a good start. People need education, job training, access to better jobs, and childcare- just for starters. I think part of the key may simply be to try to provide more options for people in poverty. For example, if a single mother is able to get a job that pays her twice as much as a minimum-wage paying position at a fast food restaurant (which is not really all that much…), she might be able to spend less time working and more time with her children. This would enable her to reduce her spending on childcare, allowing her more time to invest in her own children. At the same time, it isn’t enough to simply give her more money; most young single mothers also need education in childcare and money management- saving, budgeting, loan management, etc. One cannot simply offer answers that address one aspect of families in poverty; one must work with the entire community, investing strategically in and working through businesses, churches, schools, and community centers in order to address all of the needs of the family in poverty.
Crystal Hoffman said,
January 29, 2007 at 1:53 am
In response to your question, Dr. Warner, the “forcefeed” comment, was only used to portray the idea that some people, like myself are quite stubborn. It takes a lot for me to accept someone’s help, because most likely that means admitting that I can’t do it on my own, even when I’d like to think that I can. In a like sense, some people who may be on the verge of being in poverty may not want to admit that they need help and would rather go on living the way they are, struggling to make it through on their own; without being willing to accept help from those offering it. Many people are very willing to accept help, and that is a blessing and an opportunity for us to serve in that way, but there are always going to be those few that are stubborn and won’t break down and accept the help.
Crystal Hoffman said,
January 29, 2007 at 1:58 am
Anna, you make some VERY good points! The way you addressed the issue of making sure there is an education provided and budgetting aspects are somethings that I had not originally thought of. These are defentinly things that would be extremely helpful, rather than the “‘handout’ types of assistance are both degrading to their dignity, and fail to solve the problem in the long run” (anna’s post), that is what I was attempting to get at when I mentioned that it is hard to allow other’s to help, becuse it hurts to believe that you can’t handle the situation on your own.