Mansfield Catholic Charities is hosting two events this week featuring author Robert Lupton. The events are an effort to help the community learn how to help people help themselves.
“I want to help the community detoxify charity,” said Lupton, author of the book, “Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help, and How to Reverse It. “In other words, stop doing for others what they have the capacity to do for themselves. Shift from doing for others to doing with others. Replace one-way giving with reciprocal giving that affirms everyone in the system of exchange.”
Catholic Charities and other groups have been reading and holding discussions about the book since January. Rebecca Owens, site manager at Catholic Charities thought it would be a good idea to bring Lupton to town to hear straight from him on how to better help people who may not have the basic necessities in life.
The “Do Something” Rally was held today in the St. Peter’s High School auditorium. The rally was aimed at area church youth groups from all churches in Richland county. The theme of the rally is, “Be the Heart and Hands of Jesus while helping our neighbors help themselves.” Lupton was the guest speaker, a live praise band and giveaways were also part of the event.
The “Do Something” Workshop, featuring Lupton, will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27 at Ed Pickens Café on Main, 28 N. Main St., Mansfield. Community members, leaders, and professionals will have a community conversation regarding the community’s responsibility to help people help themselves.
While mainly social service agencies and churches have signed up for the workshop, Owens said people from the local business sector could join the “Do Something” cause.
“As we have said over and over, it is a community’s responsibility and it will indeed take the community to make a change if we are to empower and engage individuals to become self-sustaining, contributing members of the community,” she said.
Lupton has invested 40 years of his life in inner-city Atlanta. He has spent his life rebuilding urban neighborhoods where families can flourish and children can grow into healthy adults.
“I felt a calling to work with troubled teenagers. I started FCS (www.fcsministries.org) as a program to work with inner-city kids who were on probation. It eventually grew into a counseling program to include families,” Lupton said. “Over time, we evolved into a community development ministry that partners with neglected neighborhoods to bring renewal and redevelopment.”
Lupton said he hopes to help the community of Richland County to understand how helping people can sometimes hurt them, but there are ways to correct the damming behavior.
“When we detoxify the way we do charity and shift it to developing people, we give dignity to those we serve, we enhance their capacity and encourage a work ethic,” he said. “When we redevelop the communities where the poor live, they become healthy places that produce healthy families.”
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