Redefining Poverty

Recently we had a "Bridges out of Poverty" workshop in our community presented by aha! Process. This workshop is based upon the materials in the book Bridges out of Poverty by Ruby Payne, Philip DeVol & Terie Dreussi Smith.

In this book, the authors describe poverty as "the extent to which and individual does without resources".
Naturally, being a Child Care Resource & Referral agency we were curious about what resources they were referring to. The idea that poverty could not be related to finances was indeed an aha! moment. 

The resources listed in the book are:

1. Financial
2. Emotional (self-regulation)
3. Mental (to complete daily living activities)
4. Spiritual (having a divine purpose and guidance)
5. Physical (health and mobility)
6. Support systems (family, friends, back-up resources in time of need)
7. Relationship/role models (who are nurturing to children)
8. Knowledge of hidden rules (picking up on social cues)
9. Coping Strategies

In the Getting Ahead Workshops based partly upon the materials in "Bridges out of Poverty" participants in poverty reflect on and examine their lives, investigate new information that is relevant to them, assess their own resources, make plans for their own future stories, offer ideas for building a prosperous community, and choose a team to help them fulfill their dreams- all in a safe, agenda-free learning environment.

You can begin assessing your life's resources whether or not you live in financial poverty. In the Getting Ahead Workshops participants draw buckets for each resource and assess how full each is. From this, they can prioritize on which resources they need to begin building most. We don't want to diminish the impact financial poverty can have on lives. Financial resources can make filling the other buckets easier.

For instance, if you have a car that works and is filled with gas you can travel down to your local bookstore and purchase a book on Positive Parenting or if you have credit cards or banking accounts, you can order a book on-line saving time. So while having financial resources can take away some barriers to keeping the other buckets full, a person can have financial resources but have other buckets which are low. This may happen in cases of untreated mental illness or with social isolation.

As you might notice in our blog header....our agency's mission is:

To enrich children's lives through innovative support, education and enhanced family and provider services.
Our programs put families at the center of a community of support services.

We were pleased to connect the dots from these resource to our services:

1. Choices for Children can help families who need help paying for child care through our Alternative Payment Program.
2. Our offices have many excellent books in our Resource Centers on social-emotional development as well as a wealth of posts on the subject on this blog. Select the social-emotional label on your right.
3. Our Resource Centers also have a great deal of educational toys and resources to help strengthen mental development in young children as well as plenty of activity books which provide endless ideas of enriching activities for children, as well as loads of activities on this blog!
5. Our agency also provides health and safety information to the child care and parenting communities on a regular basis to help them keep the children in their lives safe and healthy.
6. Choices for Children prides ourselves in connecting our clients to the local resources based upon their individual and current needs. Give us a call when you need help locating a resource.
7. Choices for Children has a wealth of positive parenting materials in our Resource Center and on this blog. 95% of what children learn is from modeling. We have great resources to help everyone become the best role models they can be!
9. Many coping strategies require a great deal of social-emotional regulation. So ditto on #2. Social-emotional development in children is the foundation they will need for a "rich" life.

Enriching children's lives is our mission