Methodology that Counts in Poverty Alleviation

I was looking for methods of finding common indicators about poverty, and found this. I LOVE this article’ methodologies. If I was independently wealthy, I would just go around the US and do these for folks. But first I’d need some more statistics training and some GIS skills.

Developing a Regional Poverty Profile 

Poverty is relative to localities. We can tell when people are starving in other countries, but in America, poverty is hidden and part of perception. It is hard to measure something in peoples perceptions.  If we can’t measure this real poverty, how do we know our programs are going to be useful by those who they are intended for?

Here is an example of how to use this regional poverty profile in poverty alleviation. In their example study, they showed that being poor, not-so-poor, and not poor mean slightly different things in the three communities. In one places, not being poor was strongly statistically associated with being involved in a trade. They showed 83% of non-poor households were professionals or traders, whereas in the other comparative areas, only %52-53% of the not-poor were professionals or traders. In the other contrasting area, owning land and property was much more prominent means of acquiring “well-being.”  We would be able to see what the people who live in poverty think would work to make their lives better, not use the top-down method of the school, or IWD telling folks how get a “good job,” what that job is, and how to improve their lives.

“Different ethnic groups may have different value systems that, among other things, could influence their perceptions of well-being and poverty.” By building on their existing perceptions we can be sure to have programs that work for the people they are intended for.

Using their quantified knowledge WITH real measures of  industry/sector or work, hours, wage, property ownership, plus access to affordable food and public transportation we could see if something like having a bank account or a car is really a measurable asset to the relief of poverty. We could also know what types of employment would actually benefit folks – not make assumptions that all jobs are good for all populations. “Jobs” are good on the aggregate, but it isn’t “a rising tide floats all boats” for folks in poverty. This can help find the right river for them to put the boat into.

 I think this is especially great on a neighborhood level, both in the flatlands of DBQ and all the way out to Dyersville/Ashbury. How do they define well-being differently than the flatlands? What would benefit their economic success differently, and how do you quantify it? I just love this paper! I hope the ISU people can use it as a base and build policy ideas around it.

This method could also be used to include data that it leaves out, like the source of income for people in poverty, how they spend their money, or measuring the economic inequality of an area -which is a little controversial because Americans don’t really want to know this and feel bad about them doing well.

My VISTA Soapbox

Talking to other VISTAs (there are 4 of us in this town) I also find this VAD lack of context to our anti-poverty task to be annoying.

One of the major complaints I have with my state VISTA program (not my site) is that they don't have an organize plan or framework to fight poverty. They have not been able relate my work into a context to shows why my work needs done. I thought we were fighting a war! I would expect there to be a better plan.

I don't just "get" how starting an art project for kids fights poverty, or how building houses fights poverty, or how planting trees fights poverty. In fact, I find too much of the work VISTAs are recruited to do is more like charity. Charity gets on my nerves.

Paulo Freire writes "In order to have the continued opportunity to express their 'generosity,' the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. And unjust social order is the permanent fount of this 'generosity,' which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity."

No offense is meant to my VISTA brothers and sisters who are helping Habitat for Humanity, but that program is a perfect example. One of my best friends got a great deal from building a Habitat House (leadership skills, community connection, stable housing for her family, ect.) but she needed a habitat house because of the inequality in our education, justice, and social systems. I value the work, but to me, treating a symptom isn't VISTAs role, although it is a highly valuable thing. But all these "re-stores" they are trying to open all over the U.S. come from the fact that structurally, the construction industry is not good at making houses. There is so much waste that they want to find a "generous" (and sometimes green-washed) way to dispose of it.

One of my sister VISTAs works for a project that plants trees. I love it! Trees are awesome. But she never could tell me how her work was VISTA worthy. Eight months later we were all reporting our projects to the state commissioners on volunteer service and half-way through her presentation she explained how if you plant a tree on the south side of a home, you can save up to %30 of the energy costs. I get it now. It is just annoying that it took 8 months to learn. Also, while I value the project it doesn't get at the structural problems of why poverty continues to exist in one of the richest nations in the world. It is another way of treating the problem. As we learned from PSO, money is not the primary thing that people in poverty suffer a lack of.

I love this quote from one of the VISTA alumni pages. "VISTA Motivation - They knew something was wrong. They could see where the system broke down for parts of society. One way of getting at that was VISTA. The most successful Volunteers were able to see their role in balance to the situation. They understood bureaucracy and its nonsense and their own limitations. They still got up everyday and went to it."

We exist in a context. Early VISTAs did more direct service because it was the direct service that helped them find the flaws in the system. They are the ones who went on to fight it in other systematic places. Those are my heroes.

But when I came to my state, they couldn't explain to me how I fit into a state strategy to fight poverty. From my observation, they have a milieu approach. Throw enough glitter and some of it is bound to stick. My service site, however, couldn't answer that question,either, when I started. By asking for an answer we've moved the program and the entire non-profit forward. We are now working toward a strategy that puts all of our partners in context and has shared community goals. It helps them understand their personal power in the goal of fighting poverty and injustice.

I think most people, in the hearts, understand their work is valuable as fighting poverty in some way. The problem is that they are never asked to write it down and put in on a chart so everyone can see it. Maybe they are afraid if they have to say it aloud, it isn't working for what they want it to do, but they don't want to stop. And some of it is just dogma. That's what I really can't stand.

I wish the state was taking the same initiative to explain our purpose in context to a strategy of solving poverty.