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3 Responses to Poverty
We see both the needs as well as the assets of
our neighbors who struggle with poverty. While lacking material wealth,
many of our neighbors are blessed with great human and social capital.
Our services
utilize these assets to help our neighbors take care of themselves,
their families and their community.
We say "neighbors" because we do not believe in
treating the poor as "clients." Partnering with thousands of our
neighbors each month, we have three primary responses to poverty:
Compassion
 Our initial response to people's needs
is one of compassion: we address their most urgent and immediate
concerns, and then work with them to stabilize their life. Working in
this space, we primarily address the hunger and health needs of those
who struggle with poverty.
We
are set up so that very low-income persons can become first-class
distributors of compassion every day. Our large Resource Centers, on
Haskell Avenue and inside Roseland Homes, actually function as
conveyors of compassion, hope and healing.
We work hard at transcending simple charity in an effort to move toward
an empowering compassion that leads us deeper into the
lives of people and closer to life-changing opportunities.
Click
here to read our CEO's full explanation of our work in this area.
Connection
 Once a
person regains her balance for living, gets back on her feet and can
think clearly about what might be ahead, we offer the option of taking
essential next steps toward a better life.
We believe that every person has ability, capital and capacity. The
challenge or the question is, what will we do with our assets?
Working
in this space with those who are serious about their talent and
maximizing that talent, we focus on opportunity creation. Here, we primarily address
issues of education, employment and legal representation.
We
partner with our neighbors to create new and substantial opportunities
for themselves and their communities. In this way, we move beyond
charity and towards long-term, sustainable change.
Click here to read our CEO's full explanation of our work in this area.
Completion
 Up to
this point, we have walked alongside those who are working to lift
themselves out of poverty. Taking the final step into self-sufficiency,
however, is ultimately the responsibility of our neighbors themselves.
Working
in this space, we provide our neighbors with access to housing,
enrollment in long-term benefit programs, as well as membership in our
federal credit union.
Beyond this, we we serve as advocates for the poor. After addressing the
manifestations of poverty, we then dig deeper to address the root
causes of poverty in our community.
Here,
we open forums for community discussion through our blogs, book clubs
and public events. We represent our neighbors to government officials,
and speak on their behalf to media outlets covering issues related to
poverty.
Most
importantly, we challenge our supporters and partners to take the poor
seriously, and to consider them in all decisions about the future of
our community.
Click here to read our CEO's full explanation of our work in this area.
Our Programs
 For a full list of specific programs, click
here.
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