? h 11 d
^^Etand poverty issues
? Pboro by Timothy Ramsey
The audience listened intensely as Annette Snider went over causes of generational poverty.
BVTIMOTHY RAMSEY
THE CHRONICLE
The book "Bridges out of Poverty"
took center stage in a workshop on pover
ty
at the Lawrence Joel Memorial
Coliseum last Saturday, Oct. 22. The
workshop was lead by Annette Snider of
NETworX USA and sponsored by Crisis
Control. Bridges out of Poverty" helps
prepare individuals and companies to
address the issue of poverty in a compre
hensive manner.
Because of the poverty issue surround
ing certain parts of Winston-Salem,
Margaret Elliott, executive director of
Crisis Control, said there have been many
efforts to address the poverty issue in the
city over the past 50 years and they have
not worked. She wanted to see what could
be done differently.
"In Winston-Salem, we have the
mayor who is focusing on poverty reduc
tion and has created the poverty Thought
Force," Elliott said. "We nonprofit folks
who work with people who live in poverty
are trying to think of different ways to
work with people because apparently the
old ways have
not worked."
The begin
ning of the
training talked
about the his
tory of the
making of the
middle class
and how its
was directly
related to why
we have
issues of
poverty in the
United States today. Snider explored how
Workshop facilitator
Annette Snider covered
a multitude of factors
surrounding poverty
during the workshop
last Friday.
wc came IU a
middle class
standard and
expectations of
what people in,
poverty were
expected to
accompiisn.
She then touched on the difference
between generational and situational
poverty and how those two different situa
tions can have drastically different out
comes. She spoke about the poverty
guidelines and how people who are barely
living about the government stated poverty
"We have explored
looking at poverty
from a different per
spective and that
perspective is from
resources."
line are cut off from benefits that are
afforded to those who make just under the
poverty line.
"We have explored looking at poverty
from a different perspective and that per
spective is from resources," said Snider.
"We thought about some resources we can
put in to help support people to move for
ward."
f
Snider went on to say she doesn't want
people to look at an individual and say
"you made that choice so therefore those
are your consequences." /She instead
wants people to look at the systemic barri
ers that make it very difficult for people to
be able to move forward.
Snider says she' feels passionately
about this issue because in her lifetime she
has felt misunderstood and even though
she did not grow up in generational pover
ty, she Understands it.
"I just feel that we truly are afraid of
each other and when I decided to disman
tle that and realize that everyone is just a
person, it became very powerful," Snider
continued. 'To me this work breaks down
the barrier of fear so that maybe we can
get to just know one another as people."
Elliott stated she hopes that with the
training people received during the work
shop, it will enable them to build connec
tions with one another and continue to
progress. She wants this training model to
be available to more people around
Winston-Salem and the country in general
so that not only can they help more people
but help more people help themselves.
I.Vi ||PWV!V11
?k VI m KiiiA f %KAV ? ?
IB'J Bfj^H I WKk Av^H ?kk~^H
? ^1 ? ?
w^^m m
W fl
si^niFi