Creating Possibility: Strategies that reduce
multi-generational approaches to poverty
Presented by: Lyndsie White
May 29, 2015
Inheriting Poverty
“The American ghetto appears to be inherited…the neighborhood environments in
which African Americans and white Americans live have been passed down across
generations”.
Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress toward Racial Equality
-Patrick Sharkey
Economic Disparities During the Great Migration
• Overcrowded neighborhoods
• Substandard and unsafe
working conditions
• Extended working hours
• Underpaid jobs
Mortality Rate for African American Women
• The probability of African American
women living to age 70 decreased
from 90% to 85 % after migrating
from the South to the North
The Warmth of Our Sons: The epic story of
America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
Post-War Unemployment Rates Escalate
In 1973 over 5,000 African
American veterans in Detroit
found that one out of every five
young men who returned home
was still unemployed six months
later.
Fighting on Two Fronts: African
Americans and the Vietnam War - James
Westheider
Why is the need to promote economic equity and social justice
imperative for reducing aspects of poverty?
Self-sufficiency Standards for Franklin County
• Self-sufficiency standard for single
parents is $42,000 annually
• Federal poverty guideline for 2012 was
$15,130, which translates to $7.27 per
hour
• Reflects a $27, 000 gap in the
minimum self-sufficiency standard
being met
Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies; Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Kline, P., & Saez, E;
Corporation for Enterprise Development.
The State of Poverty in Ohio
• Individuals living in poverty
experience:
• adverse outcomes related to
their health
• higher rates of disease
• chronic illness
• disabilities
The State of Poverty in Ohio - Holzer et. al.
Unmasking Income Mobility
• One out of every 20 Columbus
children born into the bottom
fifth of the income distribution
ladder is able to climb to the top
as an adult.
• Forty-two percent of all Ohioans
are deemed economically
immobile.
-Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Kline, P., & Saez, E; Corporation for Enterprise Development.
Internalizing Poverty
Potapchuk, M., Leiderman, S., Bivens, D., &
Major, B. - Flipping the Script
Strategic Interventions
Neighborhood-focused and holistic approaches
to create strategic interventions that positively
impact a child’s life
- United Way of Central Ohio -
Stepping up
early childhood development: investing in young children for high returns
Focus equally and intentionally on services
as well as opportunities for the parent and
the child
- Denboba, A. et al. - Stepping up early childhood development:
investing in young children for high returns
The Mentoring Effect
• Over 1,000 young people ages
18-21 were surveyed and an
overwhelming majority 69%
indicated that their mentor
inspired them, motivated them
to do better, and advised them
in making the right decision.
- Bruce, M., & Bridgeland, J. -The mentoring effect: Young people’s
perspectives on the outcomes and availability of mentoring.
Where do we go from here?
References
Bruce, M., & Bridgeland, J. (2014). The mentoring effect: Young people’s perspectives on the outcomes
and availability of mentoring. Civic Enterprises with Peter D. Hart Research Associates.
Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Kline, P., & Saez, E. (2014). Where is the land of opportunity? The geography
of intergenerational mobility in the United States (No. w19843). National Bureau of Economic
Research.
Corporation for Enterprise Development. 2015 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard: Ohio. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://scorecard.assetsandopportunity.org/latest/state/oh.
Denboba, Amina Debissa; Elder, Leslie K.; Lombardi, Joan; Rawlings, Laura B.; Sayre, Rebecca Kraft;
Wodon, Quentin T.. 2014. Stepping up early childhood development : investing in young
children for high returns. Washington, DC ; World Bank Group.
Holzer, H. J. (2010). Penny wise, pound foolish: Why tackling child poverty during the Great Recession
makes economic sense. Georgetown University and the Urban Institute. Retrieved from
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/09/pdf/hit_childpoverty.pdf.
References Cont.
Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. (2015). State of poverty 2014: Understanding economic
hardship 50 years after the War on Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.oacaa.org/newsmedia/resources/.
Potapchuk, M., Leiderman, S., Bivens, D., & Major, B. (2005). Flipping the script: White privilege and
community building. Silver Springs, Md.: MP Associates, Inc., and the Center for Assessment
and Policy Development (CAPD).
Reed, M., Cochrane, D. (2014). Student debt and the class of 2014. The Institute for College Access &
Success, Project on Student Debt. Retrieved from ticas.org/files/pub/classof2013.pdf.
Ricketts, E. (1989). The origin of black female-headed families. Focus, 12(1), 32-36.
Sharkey, P. (2013). Stuck in place: Urban neighborhoods and the end of progress toward racial equality.
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
References Cont.
United Way of Central Ohio. (2013). Why Neighborhoods Matter to Education, Franklin County
Children Report. Retrieved from http://liveunitedcentralohio.org/education-journals/2013franklin-county-childrens-report-why-neighborhoods-matter-to-education/.
Westheider, J. E. (1999). Fighting on Two Fronts: African Americans and the Vietnam War. New York,
NY: New York University Press.
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The warmth of other suns: The epic story of America's great migration. New York,
NY: Random House.