Modifying Access, Barriers, and Opportunities: Extending Opportunities for the Poor
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WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CAUSES OF POVERTY?
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WHAT DO WE MEAN BY EXTENDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR?
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WHY EXTEND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR?
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WHEN SHOULD YOU WORK TO EXTEND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR?
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WHO SHOULD WORK TO EXTEND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR?
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HOW DO YOU EXTEND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR?
Raymond had been in and out of jail since he was 13. Jessie had for years had to choose at the end of the month, before the welfare check came, between buying milk for her kids and paying all of her rent; the milk always won. Maureen had lived on the street, and had been an alcoholic for seventeen years. Felix had worked at menial jobs for less than minimum wage since he had sneaked across the border on his way from Guatemala to the promised land when he was 15. As the four stood in their graduation robes, they had three things in common: they were all poor, they all had tears running down their faces, and they all felt that they could turn their lives around.
Raymond, Jessie, Maureen, and Felix were graduating from a comprehensive program designed to help participants overcome the barriers that kept them in poverty. They had learned how to fill out job applications, how to present themselves and interview for a job, and how to get along with co-workers - even difficult ones. Maureen and Jessie had earned GEDs (Raymond had already gotten his, during his third stint in jail), and Felix had become fluent in English. They all had learned to budget more carefully - Jessie had been paying her rent regularly, as well as keeping her kids nourished - and three were registered to vote. Felix was preparing for citizenship.
Just as important, they and their fellow participants had formed a bond. They spent time together, knew each others' families, cooked for one another, and shared child care. Raymond had already found a job with Maureen's uncle, who owned a plumbing supply business. Jessie's older daughter, who seemed to have a knack for drawing, had been accepted into an arts-focused charter school that Jessie had learned about from another participant. Felix had become good friends with one of the program volunteers, who was helping him think through how he wanted to continue his education.
For some people, the solution to poverty is simply a decent job. All they need, perhaps, is some help finding employment, and they're on their way to a better life. For others, it takes training and support, leading to the belief that they can control much of what happens in their lives. And for all, it helps to be connected to a network of other people; the wider the network, the greater the opportunities it offers.
This section is about how to provide opportunities for the poor to extricate themselves from poverty and the ills that often accompany it - uncomfortable and unsafe living conditions, crime, constant stress, preventable medical problems, family difficulties, depression, and isolation.
The word "poor" has all but disappeared from our vocabulary, at least in the U.S. In many quarters, it has come to be viewed as insulting, and has been replaced by "low-income" or "disadvantaged." As we explain below, people are poor, or become poor, for a variety of reasons, and they experience poverty in a number of different ways. What they have in common, whether they live on the streets of Mumbai, in a Tanzanian village, or on a decaying and dangerous block in New York or London, is that they don't have enough money to maintain the general standard of living of their society as a whole. Poor people in the U.S. may seem wealthy to poor people in much of the developing world, but the chances are that both feel a similar divide between themselves and the rest of their society.
We've decided to use "poor" in this section because it's the simplest and most direct term to describe the people we're concerned with - those who live in poverty and have difficulty finding a way out. Whether poverty means "below the federal poverty line" or not knowing where - or when - you'll find your next bite of food, poor is the right word.
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