Representatives from area social service agencies, community members and government officials attended the Bridges out of Poverty Training recently in an effort better understand people who are living in poverty.
Certified Lifetime Bridges Trainer and North Central State College Instructor Anne Seifert addressed about 70 people who attended the training, held at the Masonic Temple and orchestrated by Catholic Charities.
Kristin Burton, a case aide with Catholic Charities, said the organization hopes those who attended the training have “a new outlook and a new way of thinking when it comes to working with individuals in poverty and a new understanding for where they’re coming from and what they’ve gone through.”
The day long training was based on the book, “Bridges out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities” by Philip E. DeVol, Ruby K. Payne, and Terie Dreussi Smith.
“People have been dealing with, for generations, not just only the lack of finances but the lack of access to or understanding of other resources that help people have a healthy and a well life,” Seifert said. “These are people, in many cases, who have lacked opportunity.”
Seifert then talked about the “economic lens of class” and looked at poverty in a broad view from an institutional, community and individual perspective. She also touched on the middle class and those who come from generational wealth.
“Within the three general classes, I think the World Bank says there’s over 500 different financial strata. Even in the United States, we break down income to five different levels, but we are only going to talk about three today,” Seifert said.
There are hidden rules or characteristics among classes that people have adopted to fit in with their socio-economic group, Seifert said.
“We as a community across all social classes need to come together and address some of the low outcomes in our community,” she said.
Seifert said if you were to poll communities across the county, you would find they are dealing with some of the same issues of housing, addiction, transportation, and families who are struggling to take care of their children due to lack of resources.
Sociologists define generational poverty as, “your family has been in poverty for two or more generations.”
“That is about how long it takes for a family to adopt survival behaviors to get them through what they’re dealing with day to day in poverty,” she said. “The same rules apply if you were raised in generational middle class…or generational wealth, the top one percent in our nation…eighty percent of them inherited their wealth.”
People who are in generational poverty deal with life based on the moment and their relationships with the people around them, she said.
“Family and friends are very important because (the people in poverty) might not have food for the moment or other resources but they have their people around them,” she said.
Seifert also touched on the middle class and how they deal with achievement as a basis for life. Wealthy people rely on their connections with each other.
Sherry Branham, director of external operations at the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, candidly spoke about her upbringing in poverty in eastern Kentucky. She said she was not encouraged to go to college as a child but fought through the adversity to be where she is today.
“I say this to the folks that are working with families that are in poverty to encourage them to send their children to school,” she said. “It is more difficult if you’re living in poverty to get there but it is possible, but if you don’t start that conversation with the parents, they might not understand that it’s possible.”
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“People have been dealing with, for generations, not just only the lack of finances but the lack of access to or understanding of other resources that help people have a healthy and a well life,” Trainer Anne Seifert said.
