Conversations on Poverty, Saturday, July 18, 2009

I thought it might be worthwhile to share Kathleen Watson's summary of the comments made at the Conversation on Poverty held at Rappahannock Community College in Warsaw on Saturday, July 18th.

Kathleen emails "I am very pleased to report that we had a total of 23 attendees for the Conversations on Poverty event that took place at the Warsaw Campus of Rappahannock Community College this past Saturday, July 18. When I heard that the city of Richmond had about 50 attendees, I thought that 23 was a very nice showing from the Northern Neck, especially on a Saturday morning!"

"Many of the participants were concerned citizens who represented non-profits, state agencies or other local organizations. The theme that kept recurring was that of the importance of EDUCATION (not limited to the classroom, but across the lifespan). Financial literacy education for youth and others came up, as did the importance of job training skills, education about work ethics, and education to help break the cycle of generational poverty. One attendee made a wonderful statement that really spoke volumes about the problem of generational poverty: 'Poverty is not just a lack of funds, it is also a lack of dreams.' "

"The importance of involving parents in the educational system was also cited as a source of improving education, since education is so vital when discussing poverty."

"Other themes that surfaced during the event were:

• The need for well paying jobs, and industry to provide such jobs.
• The need for better wages
• A hungry child cannot learn properly. Therefore, addressing hunger is a priority.
• The system should STOP enabling single parents who continue to have babies. The system should START enabling more people to get jobs.
• Safe housing and indoor plumbing programs should continue
• Conversations on poverty should continue
• Discrimination against those with disabilities should stop
• Reliable public transportation would get people to work, to school, and to the store.
• Lower taxes, and increase charitable giving
• We must teach self sufficiency
• Better coordination of services
• Better health care options

"This is a quote that was left behind, and I thought it was very powerful:

'Until a person believes that they, personally, don’t belong where they are, no lasting change in their position will take place.'

"Thanks again, to all who came out on Saturday!"

Kathleen did a great job summarizing the contributions of the participants. For those who couldn't be there, it started with two video presentations. One was a message from Governor Tim Kaine with his invitation to provide input to his taskforce on reducing poverty. The other was a data overview from Mike Cassidy, Executive Director of the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis in Richmond. You can view both the "Act on Poverty Governor's Message" video and the "Poverty in Virginia Presentation" on the Virginia Department of Social Service website at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/virginiadss/

Both are worth viewing, but the data presentation was a particularly clear overview of poverty in Virginia.