7
Introducing the Marketplace Wealth and Poverty Desk
When I tell people about the new Marketplace Wealth and Poverty Desk, they tell me stories. How sometimes their mom had to go on welfare between jobs. Or how the other kids laughed at their off-brand sneakers. Or the year their parents split up and they had to move out of the split-level with a pool.
It turns out we are hungry to talk about wealth and poverty, money and class, where we came from and where our country is going economically.
We want to hear your stories, ideas, and questions to help us create great journalism about the growing concentration of wealth in the United States. We’ll report on the forces and policies that led to the wealth gap. We’ll look at what the consequences are, good or bad, for our families and communities. We’ll be asking you what economic choices our country should make.
Please come back often to contribute to this conversation. You can start by commenting on the stories the Wealth and Poverty Desk is broadcasting today on both Marketplace and the Morning Report, and here on our website. Come back tomorrow for our first call-out for your photos and stories.
Every Tuesday night in our small Newton, Kansas community, the basement of First United Methodist Church is filled with a diverse group of people who have made commitments to develop friendships across economic lines. We recognize that our community is not the best it can be if there are community members who don't have basic resources and who live in survival mode. So we come together to stand by our friends from low resources who have set goals to move toward self-sufficiency. We offer them our "bridging capital". We learn, together, that poverty is about lack of resources in many areas--not just money. We are all transformed through these relationships. We trust our community is ultimately going to be transformed, too, as we tackle the systemic barriers that keep our new friends from moving to stability and self-sufficiency. These weekly meetings and the changes that happen through getting to know and care about people we might otherwise never hang out with are part of the power of the Circles Campaign.
Thank you, APM, for this insightful series. As a Community Organizer working in stressed neighborhoods, I witness daily the complexities surrounding the issues of wealth and poverty. For example, I am meeting with a neighborhood friend on Friday who had to quit her job because the minimal pay (and lack of benefits) did not fill the void left by the decrease in rental support and health insurance for her children. It somehow seems un-American to have to quit a job because it does not provide for the basic needs of one's family. Whatever the solution might be in such cases, it is vitally important to have a public dialogue about the kind of country we want to have for our children, youth, families, and residents. There are many such stories that I have encountered as a volunteer with the Circles Campaign and as a Community Organizer. I look forward to future installments of this series.
Steps to End Poverty of McPherson County (Kansas) is a county-wide alliance of volunteers committed to ending poverty one family at a time through the Circles® Initiative. Circles® is a high-impact, proven strategy which equips families living with limited resources to become self-sufficient members of the community by building new relationships, resources and meaning. STEPMC engages community members, agencies, businesses, churches, schools and all others who want to work together to build stronger communities. We started as a completely volunteer organization and have received tremendous support from the National Circles Campaign and we are seeing results across our county. If we can do it, so can every community with a passion to build relationships and change lives. Our website is: www.stepmcks.org
Bridges to Circles is a community campaign driven by volunteers working to end poverty in Escambia County, Florida one family at a time. This campaign equips families impacted by poverty(Circle Leader) to develop intentional relationships with volunteers (allies) that provide access to new knowledge and resources essential to get out of poverty. 2-3 Allies support their Circle Leader to network and gain knowledge of resources in order to accomplish his or her plan for self-sufficiency. This high impact strategy has seen the following results 65% average increase in education enrollment, 48% average increase in income, 45% average increase in savings and assets, 54% average decrease in use of public benefits and 44% average increase in social capital for families, while improving the community’s knowledge and commitment to tackle poverty.
“Before I started Bridges to Circles, I had already given up on my dreams and thought I was destined to live in poverty. Bridges to Circles opened my eyes and restored my belief that if I set goals for myself, along with support from my allies, I can achieve my goals, a Circle Leader said about how Circles® changed her life.”
Learn more about our work in Florida by visiting our website: www.catholiccharitiesnwfl.org or email richardsh@cc.ptdiocese.org.
There are 70+ communities in 23 states and in Ontario, CA that are addressing the issues of poverty buy leveraging the power of volunteers, churches, systems and the amazing power of relationships. The National Circles Campaign, led by Think Tank in Springfield, OH has been growing and catching the attention of such national media as Huffington Post, CBS Evening News, CNN and TEDX in the past year. CEO, Karin VanZant, has visited over 60 of the local Circles Sites and has talked to hundreds of the hard working families that are shattering the paridigm of poverty by opening up their lives to their community. Instead of allowing the isolation of poverty to take hold of them, they are reaching out and reaching up.
The 2011 data on the National Campaign reports that over 1700 hard working families have been enrolled in Circles. At 18 months of engagement in the campaign, there is an 81% increase in income, a 17% decrease in public subsidy and an 800% increase in cash assets. This is pretty amazing considering the tough economy that most families are facing these days. For more information about the National Campaign, visit www.circlescampaign.org or contact the National Office at (937) 717-5948 or karin@circlescamapign.org. If you are interested in getting involved in a local campaign, we can connect you to the closest site or assist you in casting the vision across your own community! Join the movement!
The Circles National Campaign is empowering people from every economic class to solve poverty in their communities through individual transformation and community change. Seventy communities in the US are participating. In the past 18 months, Circle Leaders (persons seeking to improve their resources) have seen an average of 80% increase in income, an 800% increase in cash reserves, reduced debt, and are using fewer subsidies such as food stamps. They have accomplished this during tough economic times.
http://www.movethemountain.org/index.php?page=circles-campaign
