How Do I Help?

This meme showed up on a friend's Facebook timeline the other day. I wanted to click "like" when I saw it because I do agree with the sentiment, but I didn't. I'm not sure why I didn't. Maybe it was because I felt that supporting this sentiment should be more than just a click of a "like" button on Facebook; support of this sentiment should be me moving towards finding solutions to the poverty problem. And that is where I am stuck.

Oh sure, I donate to the local food banks. I donate used clothing, toys, household goods to local community groups. And yes, I donate money to our church's welfare services on a monthly basis. If I have some spare food in my car I will give it to the panhandler on the side of the freeway. I was a volunteer tutor to a foster child who need some help with her school work. But do those things really move our society towards solving the problem of poverty in our country? I don't know. Maybe what I do is like the little boy who saved one starfish at a time...I can't save everyone, but my efforts do matter to the one that I helped at that moment.

However, as I grow older I am wanting to help on a larger scale. So what can I do to be the change in the world that I want to see? On this poverty issue I really don't know. At the school nurse conference I attended last weekend we heard a poverty expert, Donna Beegle, speak on poverty in the United States. She grew up in poverty, dropped out of school after 9th grade, got her GED at age 26 and then went on to get a PhD. You would think that if anyone could help me see some solutions, she would be the one. However, I was seriously disappointed with her presentation, especially since her presentation was based on her book "See Poverty...Be the Difference".

From her I learned a just few things. First, I learned all about what poverty teaches you. I also learned that she has little regard for Ruby Payne, a researcher who addressed the effects of poverty on children and education. And I learned that if you are middle class you just don't get poverty because you look at everything through a middle class lens (Ruby Payne is middle class and that is why this lady dismissed that research done by Payne). So I kept waiting for her to offer me some solutions; solutions that she has come up with because she has lived poverty, worked her way out, and now is an "expert". But all I kept hearing was statistics on the underinsured, the number of hungry children, the dropouts, the marginalized and "can't we do better?"

Yes, I want to do better. But what I heard her say was I really can't because I only see things through a middle-class lens. Any solution I might offer will always be tinted by that lens. She kept telling us to just stop and take time to notice. OK, I'm noticing. Now tell me how to fix the things I notice. And don't tell me to fight for more public policies that address poverty because I don't think that is a good solution. The reason I don't is because those policies are developed by people who are definitely more upper middle-class than I am and if I don't get poverty, they certainly don't get poverty.

So I'm back to the title of my post...how do I help? What solution can I offer to the poverty problem and what part do I play? I don't want more government programs because I don't believe those offer real solutions. The people who wind up paying more in taxes get angry about higher taxes, but often not angry enough to actually get out and do something solving the poverty problem; higher taxes are easier to pay when compared to the time, talents, and effort that would be required to really help address the problem. On the other side are those who are the recipients of the government's help. Some work incredibly hard (like mentioned in the meme at the beginning of this post), but there are others who take complete advantage of the programs set up for their benefit. Those who take advantage of the programs are the ones who spoil it for all.

I wish I had a good ending for this post, but I don't. There are no easy answers; perhaps there aren't even any solutions to poverty. I just want to know the best way to help and feel like I'm making a difference on a larger scale than just a single starfish saved.