POVERTY CHALLENGE
Mayor's 'Poverty Thought
Force' seeking public ideas
BY TODD LUCK
TMfi CHRONICLE
Mayor Allen Joines' Winston-Salem
Poverty Thought Force is looking to the
public for ideas to reduce poverty in .
Forsyth County.
The Thought Force is a 21-member '
panel that will take community ideas for
reducing poverty and turn them into
actionable proposals. The panel is com
prised of many government officials and
heads of local organizations that deal with
poverty. Representatives of local colleges
such as Wake Forest University Provost
Rogan Kersh, who chairs the group, and
Winston-Salem State University
Chancellor Elwood Robinson are also on
the panel, and will be using their resources
to analyze ideas and see which can be
effectively implemented.
"I tried to come up with a sort of
diverse group of individuals who were
good thinkers, who represent various seg
ments of the community and who had
interest in poverty reduction," said Joines.
The Thought Force is divided into five
sub-committees dealing with different
aspects of poverty: Health and Wellness;
Housing and Homelessness; Job and
Workforce Development; Education and
Life Skills; and Hunger and Food
Insecurity. Each subcommittee is holding a
meeting to get ideas from the public. The
meetings follow the "World Caf?" model,
in which attendees are divided into rotating
groups that discuss specific prompts, as
guided by a moderator, before sharing
findings with the larger group at the end.
The first such event held in September,
focusing on food insecurity, yielded about
300 ideas that the Thought Force is still
reviewing. The rest of the meetings will be
held in January and February.
"What's been done before hasn't
worked" said Joines. "The idea is to gener
ate a lot of ideas and test each one of those
ideas with impactfulness and doability and
then have some really good critical think
ing individuals kind of look at it and come
up with what makes sense."
Joines said that he plans to add at least
I HIH
one business leader to the panel. He said he
hopes those who have lived in poverty will
share their insights during World Cafg
meetings.
Joines said the goal is to come up with
20-25 final recommendations on reducing
poverty next year that'll be presented to
the public for further comment before
being submitted to the city, county. United
Way and other agencies and organizations
for adoption. He's hoping to get broad
community support for the plan that the
Thought Force produces.
"I tried to come
up with a sort of
diverse group of
individuals who
were good
thinkers."
-Mayor Allen Joines
Bishop Todd Fulton, president of the
Ministers' Conference of Winston-Salem
and Vicinity, is among the panel members.
He said the more than 50 churches that
make up the Ministers' Conference see
poverty in their congregations every week.
"Poverty has always been an issue in
the African-American community," he
said.
Marlon Hunter, director of the Forsyth
County Public Health Department, is also
on the Thought Force. He said his depart
ment serves many low-income residents,
and he's hoping the panel will get at the
root causes of poverty.
"Poverty is a social determinate of
health," he said.
Andrea Kurtz, director of the 10 Year
Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and
United Way Housing Strategies director
isn't on the panel (though Forsyth United
Way President Cindy Gordineer is). She
said the 10 Year Plan shows that such com
munity collaborations can work.
Chronic homelessness, which is a dis
abled person who's been homeless for a
year or more or who's been homeless four
times in the past three years, is half of what
it was in 2010. The plan has also ended
veterans' homelessness, meaning that a
veteran in the homeless service system can
receive housing in a matter of weeks.
Kurtz said that in order for the efforts
on poverty to be successful, it'll require the
city, county and organizations involved to
make serious commitments like what hap
pened with the 10 Year Plan.
? Rogan Kersh, Wake Forest University provost
? Wynne Brown. Student Health Services director at the Winston-Salem State University Wellness Center
? Joe Crocker, Poor and Needy Division director at Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust;
? Beverly Emory, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools superintendent
? Bishop Todd Fulton. Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity president
? Robert Garcia, Hispanic League vice president
? Lee Garrity, Winston-Salem city manager
? Art Gibel, Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina president
? Cindy Gordineer, United Way of Forsyth County president
? Gary Gunderson, Faith and Health Ministries vice president at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
? Marlon Hunter, Forsyth County Public Health director
? Sen. Paul Lowe Jr. of N.C. Senate District 32
? Walter Marshall, Forsyth County commissioner
? Derwin Montgomery, Winston-Salem Council Member and Bethesda Center for the Homeless director
? Earline Parmon, outreach director for U.S. Rep. Alma Adams
? Kenneth Peacock, retired chancellor of Appalachian State University
? Evan Raleigh, city Community and Business Development deputy director
? El wood Robinson, WSSU chancellor
? Michael Suggs, Goler Community Development Corp. president
? Larry Woods, Housing Authority of Winston-Salem CEO
? Linda Jackson-Barnes, director of the mayor's office
Poverty
from page A1
Institute - a Washington
think tank - in conjunction
with the online "Business
Insider," also released a
report showing that
Winston-Salem was second
on a list of major metro
areas in the nation that
experienced tremendous
growth in poverty in dis
tressed tracts with 20 per
cent-plus poor populations
between the years 2000
and 2008-12.
With 24.1 percent of its
residents living below the
poverty level, the city had
an 82 percent growth in its
poor population from 2008
to 2012 alone, according to
U.S. Census figures, with
African-Americans - over
34 percent of Winston
Salem's population,
according to the census -
making up more than 31
percent of those in poverty.
The impact of the eco
nomic recession, which
cost many their jobs, is
seen as a key factor,
observers and officials say.
The East, Northeast and
Southeast wards are the
areas of the city that are
struggling most with issues
of high unemployment and
low median household
income. Like other dis
tressed tracts across the
state, poverty is concentrat
? ed in these areas, thus
yielding high crime, lower
health outcomes, and few,
if any, economic opportu
nities.
In each case, according
to the 2014 UNC study,
these wards suffer from
lower rates of home and
vehicle ownership; a high
likelihood of families with
children headed by single
mothers (indeed three of
five families are headed by
single mothers. They also
have the highest proportion
of Spanish-speaking and
non-English speaking
households.
Unemployment in
urban distressed tracts is
literally at least twice the
statewide rate. Per capita
income is less than half the
state average, and poor
urban residents have
greater rates of public
assistance, according to the
UNC study.
These economically
distressed wards also share
the characteristic of having
lower percentages of adults
who've graduated from
high school or attained
bachelor degrees or higher,
than statewide attainment
rates.
On Thursday, Oct. 29,
Mayor Allen Joines, along
with City Council Member
Derwin Montgomery and
others, announced the for
mation of the so-called
Winston-Salem Poverty
Thought Force - a 21
member panel of civic and
academic leaders tasked to
hold a series of community
meetings to devise effec
tive approaches to lower
ing poverty in the city.
"We are going to
address poverty in five sub
areas," Joines told The
Chronicle by email subse
quently on Tuesday. "Jobs;
food ; health disparities;
education; and housing.
We will be seeking broad
community input into each
of these subject areas and
from that input will create
objectives to address the
issue. It is our plan to
complete this analysis and
idea-generating phase by
early spring and then trans
form the ideas into tangible
and measurable objectives
by mid-year."
"In 2014, more than 24
percent of the citizens in
Winston-Salem lived in
poverty, based on their
household income," Joines
told reporters on Oct. 29.
"That's not only disheart
ening, but unacceptable for
a progressive city.
Residents who live in
poverty cannot provide
themselves and their
dependents with adequate
medical care, education,
housing, food and other
resources by which we
measure our quality of
life."
Montgomery said at the
press conference that with
a quarter of the city's resi
dents "lacking in the basic
necessities," Winston
Salem cannot move for
ward. "Truly, poverty
forces people to live in the
shadows of our community
and adversely impacts us
from our schools to our pri
vate - businesses,"
Montgomery told
reporters. "If our morality
does not lead us to take
action, the economics of
poverty should. We will all
pay if we do nothing."
In an email response
for comment from The
Chronicle Tuesday,
Montgomery elaborated.
"At the end of the day,
there are several things that
I personally think need to
happen. (1) People want
and need to work, must
make not just a 'living
wage' but what I consider a
"thriving wage", (2) There
must be educational
pipelines for everyone that
desires, that connects to
meaningful employment
(3) The state and federal
government must change
the rules for those receiv
ing public assistance that
incentives their economic
accent. As it stands today.
if an individual wants to
get a higher paying job.
they put at risk any assis
tance they receive that sim
ply helps them make ends
meat. There should be a
gradual reduction in assis
tance and not the 'cliff' that
is currently in place."
Montgomery contin
ued, "There has to be
access to opportunities.
Barriers that have impacted
black and brown individu
als disproportionately must
be set aside, this includes
the impact of criminal
records and credit scores
used in the hiring
process."
The Chronicle also
reached out to Northeast
Ward Council Member and
Mayor Pro Tempore Vivian
Burke and Southeast Ward
Council Member James
Taylor Jr. by email and
phone to get their thoughts
about what the city and
state should specifically be
doing to address the grow
ing poverty in the city.
However, neither respond
ed to our requests for com
ment by press time
Tuesday.
The five Thought Force
subcommittees will begin
their meetings in January
and February, officials say.
Forsyth Futures will pro
vide the latest data analysis
to the effort.
"Ultimately, our goal is
for the Thought Force to
come up with a list of rec
ommendations that are
both feasible and impact
ful," Joines said, "and to
set a goal in terms of a per
centage of reduction in the
poverty rate."
Joines continued, ""I
realize that this is an ambi
tious undertaking, but I
believe that if we act col
laboratively as a communi
ty, we can come up with a
plan that will significantly
reduce our poverty rate,
and in the process, improve
the lives of thousands of
our citizens."
High poverty concentration in Winston-Salem
^ \^Northeart\
TNorthWest X. ? //h *"*
Chronicle graphic by Ron RogerjNy
Montgomery
Taylor
WSSU ranked among top 10 in the nation for improving economic mobility
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE ?
Winston-Salem State University was named one ot the
top 10 universities in the nation for its contribution toward
narrowing the economic gap in the United States
Ranking seventh in the nation on the CollegeNet
Social Mobility Index (SMI), WSSU is the highest ranked
university in North Carolina and the second highest
ranked historically black university in the country.
A total of 931 universities were ranked.
The SMfcevaluates colleges and universities based on
admissions practices that work to reverse the growing
economic disparity in the U.S. WSSU scored high on a
of the variables considered in the ranking: number ot low
income students admitted and graduated, low tuition cos ,
and high employment outcomes a er
graduation. According to the study, a "high SMI ran ing
\ *
means that a college is contributing in a responsible way
to solving the dangerous problem of economic immobility
in our country."
"Winston-Salem State University has a long history of
educating exceptionally promising students from under
resourced families." said WSSU Chancellor Elwood L.
Robinson. "The Social Mobility Index ranking demon
strates that we are fulfilling our goal of helping students
succeed while having a positive and long-lasting econom
ic impact on our state and nation."
Unlike other ranking systems, which use "exclusivity"
to rank colleges and universities, the SMI measures the
extent to which a college or university educates more eco
nomically disadvantaged students at a lower tuition, so
they can graduate and obtain well-paying jobs.
The ranking comes as WSSU is embarking on a strate
gic plan for 2016-2021. As the strategic plan is developed.
i
WSSU is intentionally developing practices and programs
that ensure that the campus continues to address the chal
lenges and obstacles facing low-income, first-generation
and minority students.
"Students from under-resourced populations require
an educational experience that integrates academic guid
ance, mentoring, support services, and a caring communi
ty," said Robinson. "HBCUs like WSSU have always cre
ated a different educational experience for our students,
but we must continue to evolve to ensure that promising
students learn the skills theyfieed to be successful in jobs
that may not even yet exist. I'm proud that we have been
recognized for our efforts in this area and know that we
will continue to make an impact on the economic lives of
thousands of families."
To view the full rankings and the methodology for the
SMI. visit www.socialmobilityindex.org.
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