Application: Faces of Poverty—Close To Home

When people are poor, they are frequently stereotyped and surrounded by myths. Before you begin work on this assignment, review Dr. Grace's conversation about poverty and all of the required articles. What did you learn from these resources about the impact of poverty on the well-being of young children and their families? Were you surprised by what you read about poverty myths? Is it possible that you held a belief (or beliefs) about poverty that is stereotyped or based on a myth?

Now that you are acquiring an understanding of the scope of the poverty issues, this assignment requires that you immerse yourself at your specific local level by going on a fact-finding mission to learn about poverty in your own community. For this assignment, use the same definition of poverty as presented in the introduction to this week, that is, poverty as measured using the official poverty line. (You can find the official U.S. poverty line on the Department of Health and Human Services' website at http://www.hhs.gov/.)

Step 1: Connecting with Resources

You will first need to make contact with at least three different local "resources" to obtain information about poverty in your community and to search for information about related issues. Use the Local Poverty Information Template on the Resources page to guide your information search, and to record the results of your inquiries. (I live in Joplin, Missouri)

Here are suggestions for ways to go about gathering the required information:

• Find official data by calling or visiting:
  • Local government offices
  • Local newspaper(s)
  • Social service agencies
  • Local libraries
  • Local television station websites with resource pages about your community
  • Nonprofit organizations such as those that help homeless people
  • Shelters that feed the hungry
• Search the Internet for information about poverty specific to your community. Ask center directors or school principals what they know about poverty in your community. Perhaps you know children and/or families who are experiencing life in poverty.

Then access and review this document by clicking on the following link: Local Poverty Information Template

Note: If, after following the steps above, you determine that there is no poverty in your immediate community, proceed to Step 2. Otherwise, skip to Step 3.

Step 2: Extending Your Reach

You arrived at this step because you determined that there is no poverty in your immediate community. Now consider these questions:

• Is it possible that there might be a hidden poverty issue in your community? Are there people in your community who are living in poverty but are not visible to you, such as homeless people, families who are afraid to become visible? What could you do to find out?
• If there actually is no hidden poverty in your community, how wide do you have to cast your net to encounter poverty? Outside the city limits? Outside your county? Further? How far do you have to go to come into contact with poverty?
• Once you have "found" poverty, collect information as described in Step 1. Use any additional methods for collecting information that will help you complete this portion of the assignment.
• Record the information you collected in the Local Poverty Information Template.

Step 3: Exploring Issues Related to Local Poverty

Compose a document titled "Exploring Issues Related to Local Poverty." Address your experiences during this exploration of local poverty issues, and include:

• Information/ideas/insights that illustrate and explain the state of poverty and related issues in your locality
• Your assessment of how understanding the realities of poverty and related issues at your local level is imperative for professionals in the early childhood field
• At least one insight, fact, or new learning from the media segment with Dr. Grace, and one from any of the articles that affirm or contradict what you learned about poverty during this exploration
• Ways in which studying issues of poverty have affected you professionally and personally, including any assumptions about poverty or people who are living in poverty which have been confirmed and/or dispelled

(Assignment length: 2 pages minimum)

Step 4: Submit

• The completed document "Local Poverty Information Template"
• The document "Exploring Issues Related to Local Poverty"

Here is the Local Poverty Info Template:

Local Poverty Information

(Please enter your information in the right hand column. If you have information from more than three sources, just add new rows to your table)