Poverty is not an aspiration: Breaking the poverty cycle | Michelle Gethers-Clark | TEDxGreensboro

living behind the door of apartment 12s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan I recall peanut butter came in a can and with every attempted spread the bread tore and with every bite it stuck to the roof of my mouth and cheese came in a long rectangle box and I disliked the taste of the melted cheese and butter it came in the shape of a brick these items were known as welfare food and they were distributed in the public housing project where I lived I vowed when I grow up I will find a way not to rely on these handouts being poor is not intentional and being poor is not an aspiration being poor is the results of not having a support system that allows you to earn enough money to take care of yourself and your family being poor is labeled poverty my mother and father were poor they grew up in the segregated south in the 1940s and 1950s they did not have the opportunity to go to college excuse me they did not have the opportunity to go to high school even they moved to New York in search of public housing and jobs and to escape dirt roads out houses and day work picking cucumbers my mother my father and my elementary school teachers taught me to value education they told me that there was life beyond public housing and that one day I would go to college my home was filled with love and hope for a bright future we didn't have much but what we had was clean and well-maintained my mother often talked about what we could afford and what we could not afford my first lesson in finance came from my mother who worked at the post office third shift as a clerk boxing mail and she said we don't have extra money but I observed out of every paycheck she set aside money to invest in savings bonds so that I could go to college when I was 13 my mother died my life changed dramatically I lost sight of my dreams my brother my sister and I went to live with my aunt and uncle thankfully my new support system gave me the opportunity to continue my dreams at the age of 15 I became eligible for aged stay in school job a federally funded job for at-risk children I was classified as at-risk because I was from a poor background and I didn't have parents my job was a secretarial clerk into my life came judge Shapiro a elderly Jewish man who seemed to be gray from head-to-toe and cloaks himself in a black robe as he entered the courtroom two years into my job he looked at me and he said where you going to college I had been declined by the only two schools I applied to I was down to the wire after his docket judge Shapiro stayed after work with me and helped me fill out a college application and he wrote a check for $20 for my college application fee I remember skipping to the post office that day a few weeks later in the lobby of my high school I picked up the pay phone to call Long Island University to see if I have been accepted my heart was pounding as I listened to hear the voice on the other side say yes and she did the first person I told was Joe Shapiro that day he moved from gray to a full living color he opens his desk drawer and gave me the $20 canceled check that was my application feats who remind me that I was going to college and I was going to reach my full potential a stranger from a different world named judge Shapiro made an investment in me that is still paying dividends today I made it my family made it and the cycle of poverty is broken my visualization of being poor in poverty and breaking the cycle is real I thrived because of a combination of having a family public housing welfare cheese and a grey haired man I have gone on to achieve my dreams I became a certified public accountant I got to be a senior vice president at a fortune 100 company had the opportunity to write a book and now I serve as the president of the United Way here in our community 14.9% of the United States is poor and lives in poverty that's 44 million people right here in our community with a population of about 280,000 people there is for excuse me 20% poverty and 57,000 people feel trapped in poverty for every face you see behind me there's 1,000 people standing behind them to demonstrate the magnitude of this issue a family of four living on 24,000 $300 is considered living in poverty there's a difference between situational poverty when you lose your job and a feeling broke requires one solution when you live in persistent poverty which means you never have enough money to meet your basic needs you are disadvantaged and there requires a set of solutions there's a big difference between being broke and being broken so why is poverty so high you ask because because we often treat the results of a person living in poverty and we do not address the root cause of why someone is in poverty people living in poverty don't want handouts people living in poverty don't want yes people living in poverty don't want more service people living in poverty what barriers removed so they can get access to job training and a job so they can take care of themselves and their families I know this because I needed a barrier removed and a man like judge Shapiro shared his knowledge his time and he wrote a check for $20 that changed the trajectory of my life forever the topic of poverty and helping communities represents a very special part in my life in my heart I've had the opportunity to research really bright people applying innovative solutions to this idea of breaking the cycle of poverty national models and regional models are successfully reducing generational poverty and they're doing this by bringing together people who are willing to work with every member of the family from birth to career the evidence points to a model a business model that is local logical and integrated we've got to be willing to say that in community neighborhood settings we can bring together smart people to address this issue of poverty together in other words meet people and serve people where they are the successful models highlight very specific attributes and those attributes include a teacher a banker a stranger a volunteer a social worker a job coach a food stamp coordinator a housing advocate a job development support and all these people have the authority to remove barriers and they come bearing hope a smile determination patience compassion passion and I can do attitude we have seen these models work and the goal of the model is to ensure that families are educated that families are healthy and families are employed these very basic elements have begun to take root right here in Greensboro and as a result the United Way has opened up a family Success Center the family Success Center is located in a community of 22 percent poverty and it brings together experts and families Oh navigating to break the cycle of poverty the Shepards a family of three are members of the family Success Center prior to the family Success Center they were homeless they lived in homeless motels they moved to living and sleeping on the couches of friends and family and now they live in public housing no jobs and no opportunities they apply for and received access to a federally funded Child Development Program for their child still no jobs no job training to show his determination mr. Shepherd volunteers at the Child Development Center to demonstrate he is willing to work still no jobs on the first day of the family Success Center he says to me all I need is a chance everyone keeps telling me I don't have experience but how do I get experience if no one gives me a chance the family Success Center offered mr. Shepherd a job readiness training program he accepted the coach in the program gave him a boost of confidence to stay on track and helped him refine his approach to employers all this was offered in the neighborhood easy access removed the barrier of transportation and he was in class with his peer group mr. Shepherd is now work he is a food driver for Guilford child development Mrs Shepard is in a GED class taught by an enthusiastic formal lawyer who is now a community college instructor the class is in the neighborhood with her peers the Shepards are making progress they still have a lot of goals to achieve but they've got determination and a support system that is offering them opportunities to be successful they are a role model for their daughter and for their peers I don't want anybody to be overwhelmed by the idea of poverty or the statistics the family Success Center has successfully come into place for one year and I just want to share four high level results with you it is in a neighborhood as I shared with you of 22 percent poverty and for terrific things have happened for the hundred and eight families that are in the pilot the first thing thirty-three bold employers have said I'm gonna hire thirty three of your families we've got a hundred percent of the preschool age children are now in settings so that their brains are being stimulated so they can learn we've got one banker who's already opened 39 college savings account they still have a hundred and twelve to go for every child whose parent is planning for them to go to college and one enthusiastic community college instructor is teaching forty adults how to get there ge he's cheering and teaching over the next three years three more family success centers will open in our community experts and families will break the cycle of poverty together and remove barriers poverty and being poor is not something to be overwhelmed by maybe just maybe we can stop blaming people for being poor and living in poverty instead let's learn more about poverty two ways to do that a site visit to the family Success Center in your community or learn through published reports from the Brookings Institute on disadvantages and poverty we can be a support system for people in our community we can make one small gesture to end generational poverty we can do this we can in generational poverty one person one family one community at a time who among us is willing to remove a barrier and be like Josh Shapiro and specifically remove a barrier for a girl like me thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 22,424

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Life, Behavior, Compassion, Family, Hardship, Poverty

Id: CYdGmPsaxvE

Length: 18min 27sec (1107 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 08 2016