Our Heart: The Effect of Poverty on the Poor
Listen to the poor describe their poverty:
For a poor person everything is terrible- illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of.[1]
[The poor have] a feeling of powerlessness and an inability to make themselves heard.[2]
The most basic issue now facing black America [is]: the nihilistic threat to its very existence. This threat is not simply a matter of relative economic deprivation and political powerlessness- though economic well-being and political clout are requisites for meaningful progress. It is primarily a question of speaking to the profound sense of psychological depression, personal worthlessness, and social despair so widespread in black America. –Cornel West, African-American scholar[3]
Although the poor may mention their lack of material possessions, they tend to describe their condition in psychological and social terms. They usually talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation and voicelessness.[4] The impoverished face a daily struggle to survive. They are overwhelmed with feelings of helplessness, anxiety, suffocation, and desperation that are unparalleled in the lives of the middle and upper class.[5]
Reflecting on the brokenness of society, ill relationships between people, and the corrupt systems that bond people in poverty, Bryant Myers states: Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.[6]
Robert Chambers, a development expert, asserts: the materially poor are trapped by multiple, interconnected factors- insufficient assets, vulnerability, powerlessness, isolation, and physical weakness- that ensnare them like bugs caught in a spider’s web.[7]
How Do You Transform A Person?
People are spiritual, social, psychological, and physical beings; therefore, poverty-alleviation efforts must be committed to holistically transforming people.[8]
I. Transforming the Heart
The hearts of all people contain corrupt desires. The manifestation of these corrupt desires into bad behavior is often magnified in the impoverished streets of urban America. The people of the hood are not innately any worse than the rest of us; however, their environment often lacks encouragement or drive to develop moral character. Positive role-models are rare, while the influencing presence of drug lords, teen mothers, and gang leaders is rampant. An alternative way of life needs to be taught, modeled and implemented through character building and moral teaching. An effective way to teach good character is to raise up leaders in the community and encourage them to relationally invest in the lives of others and to model moral behavior. A strong presence of respect, responsibility, kindness, service and honor would transform hearts.
II. Transforming the Mind
Poverty saturates the minds of the poor, influencing their beliefs and behavior. Their world-view is distorted and needs to be restored.[9]
New information and practical training is needed to develop and maintain a life of adequacy.[10] Quality K-12, college, and vocational education and training will transform their minds, and in turn transform their behavior and way of life. Through education they will be enabled to break free from the detrimental mindset of poverty and enter a new world of joyous opportunity.
III. Transforming the Body
The physical need of the poor is often the most visible to the outsider. Physical and emotional heath is the foundation for the ability to work, play and develop sound relationships. Good health is not guaranteed in impoverished families.[11] A healthy, balanced life requires enough income to purchase food, housing, and other necessary material possessions. Jobs that provide an adequate income for unskilled workers, especially in urban areas are limited.[12]
Health and nutritional education, access to affordable health care and housing, local affordable supermarkets, skill training and job opportunities are all vital components to transforming the body.
How Do You Transform A Community?
We can transform the community by transforming a critical mass of individuals. Every community consists of gifted and skilled individuals. Great communities recognize the gifts of individuals and provide the opportunities for those gifts to be utilized. As the gifts and skills of individuals are assessed, we can build connections between similar skilled individuals, forming associations. Building relationships is the heart of community building. Long-lasting, multi-faceted relationships are formed when the formally isolated are encouraged and empowered to use their skills within the community. All communities, no matter their economic status, contain institutions that are capable of supporting the community’s gifted individuals and associations.[13] Susan Rans states:
“Finding and connecting existing assets is the most important work a community can do. The more assets that are connected and mobilized, the stronger a community becomes. Everyone and everything must be included for success.”[14]
A Better LA, a 501(c)(3) that is changing Los Angeles communities from within, has found that the best way to make a lasting impact in the inner-city is to empower those from within the community. Through their partnerships with community members, they have successfully reduced violence, changed the lives of the highest-risk individuals, and created a healthy and safe environment for the entire community.[15]
According to the Evaluation Handbook for Community Mobilization, “The energy sparked by a community committed to transformation ignites similar efforts in other communities, eventually creating a large scale movement which reaches “critical mass” and ultimately transforms the larger society and culture.”[16]
How Do You Alleviate Poverty?
The problem of poverty surpasses the material dimension; therefore, the solutions must surpass the material as well.[17] We can change poverty by demonstrating to the poor through listening, our words and actions that they are people with unique talents and abilities. We can help them reclaim their sense of dignity.[18] Effective poverty alleviation comes through positive and edifying relationships.[19]
I. The Approaches
Two main approaches to alleviating poverty have been identified: a need-based approach and an asset-based approach. The need-based approach is historically the most common; however, research shows that it may not be the most effective approach for lasting change.
Needs-Based Approach: Community members are viewed and treated as needy clients. The method of tackling the many problems of the inner-city is problem solving. Progress is slow and stagnant. It takes months and years to produce noticeable results. Outside institutions and associations come into ‘hopeless’ neighborhoods with the intention to produce positive change through programs and services.[20]
Asset-Based Approach: Community members are viewed and treated as people or citizens. “It rests on the principle that the recognition of strengths, gifts, talents and assets of individuals and communities is more likely to inspire positive action for change than an exclusive focus on needs and problems.”[21] The assets of individuals’ skills and gifts, neighborhood associations and local institutions are utilized. The development is driven by the community, instead of outsiders. Noticeable results surface quickly.[22]
II. The Methods
Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert outline the three most common methods of alleviating poverty: relief, rehabilitation, and development. Not all poverty is created equal; therefore, it is very important to distinguish which approach is called for by each situation.[23]
Relief is characterized by urgent and temporary provision of needs in order to reduce immediate suffering. The key proponent of relief is a provider-receiver dynamic in which the provider gives assistance, often material, to the receiver, who is incapable of helping himself at that time.[24] Common examples of relief are hand-outs of money, food, medical supplies, and clothes.
Rehabilitation goes a step further. The goal of rehabilitation is to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions.[25] An example of rehabilitation is a drug recovery program.
Development is “a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved- both the “helpers” and the “helped”- closer to being in right relationship” with self, others, and society. As the materially poor develop, they are better able to work and support themselves and their families. “Development is not done to people or for people but with people.”[26] The key to development is encouraging an empowering process in which all the people involved- both the “helpers” and the “helped” grow and change.[27]
Material poverty alleviation must go beyond ensuring that people have sufficient material things. The impoverished need to be empowered to earn sufficient material possessions through their own labor.[28]
[1] Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor—and Yourself (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 52.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid, 54.
[4] Ibid, 53.
[5] Ibid, 70.
[6] Ibid, 62.
[7] Ibid, 70.
[8] Ibid, 60.
[9] Ibid, 84-87.
[10] "Poverty Wheel." Compassion International. http://www.compassion.com/poverty/poverty-wheel.htm (accessed November 14, 2011).
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Susan A. Rans, Hidden Treasures: Building Community Connections by Engaging the Gifts of *(Evanston, IL: Asset Based Community Development Institute, 2005).
[14] Ibid.
[15] A Better LA. "Be the Change." Helping to Change Communities from Within. http://abetterla.org/ (accessed November 15, 2011).
[16] California Department of Health Services, Maternal Child Health Branch, Domestic Violence Section. "Evaluation Handbook for Community Mobilization: Social Movement Theory." Transforming Communities. tc.clientrabbit.com/files/resources/instigate/ssup/social_movement_theory.pdf (accessed November 15, 2011).
[17] Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor—and Yourself (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 54.
[18] Ibid, 68.
[19] Ibid, 78.
[20] Alison Mathie PhD and Gord Cunningham MA. “From Clients to Citizens: Asset-Based Community Development as a Strategy for Community-Driven Development.” Occasional Papers. http://www.stfx.ca/institutes/coady/text/about_publications_occasional_citizens.html (accessed November 15, 2011).
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid, 103-104.
[24] Ibid, 104.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid, 105.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid, 79.
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