Central Dallas Ministries thanks the more than 750 people who turned out at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel March 10 for its 10th Annual Urban Ministries Prayer Event. The crowd, which was 25 percent larger than last year, heard David K. Shipler's message of the complexity of poverty. Mr. Shipler is the best-selling author of " "The Working Poor: Invisible in America," an accomplished New York Times reporter and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

During his 40-minute speech, he described the day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year difficulties faced by the dozens of working poor people he got to know during his research. Being aware of how difficulties impact the poor more dramatically than others - a sick child or malfunctioning car could mean missing a day of work which could lead to being fired which prevents rent from being paid which leads to eviction which could land a family in a homeless shelter. The middle-class and affluent often have the financial and support networks to buffer themselves from such dramatic outcomes.

Read Shipler's bio

Shipler's goal with his best-selling book is to create an understanding of the many faces of poverty and how it entrenches people as a first step to finding a solution to reducing the number of poor. The solution, too, involves both Democrats and Republicans coming together, he told the crowd.
"I have learned that liberal Democrats. . . have some pieces of the puzzle and that conservative Republicans have some pieces of the puzzle," he said. "We must come together with those pieces."

Q & A at Church of the Incarnation

Mr. Shipler appeared shortly after the prayer event at Church of the Incarnation for a question and answer session with the public. He spoke on a panel with Cecilia Edwards, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Foundation for Community Empowerment and Dr. Harold Recinos, professor of church and society at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

More than 60 people attended the hour-long Q & A which was followed by a book signing. Mr. Shipler spent the afternoon being interviewed by several journalists - local documentary filmmaker Tom Steyer as well as a Dallas Morning News writer and on-air with Glenn Mitchell for KERA's (90.1) The Glenn Mitchell Show. A big thank-you to both Mr. Shipler for bringing his words of wisdom and research to us in Dallas and to everyone who attended the 10th Annual Urban Ministries Prayer Event. With your support, we can continue the important efforts that connect the working poor to opportunities for improvement and wholeness

Click here for our most recent Prayer Event.