First Person

Creating Dignity and Value Through Service

Every Wednesday evening for more than two years, anywhere from 150 to 300 men, women, and even children, line up for a free meal we serve in downtown Washington, DC. The program, called St. Maria’s Meals, isn’t going to end poverty or get any of our clients out of their very challenging situations on its own. But it has started to build a community and send a message that each diner has dignity and value. And on September 24th, about 300 of our clients will have an up close encounter with Pope Francis as the last stop on his visit to Washington, DC.

I keep pinching myself; it still seems like a dream that the Pope is coming to visit our clients and staff. But will that visit do anything to change the reality of hardship for these folks?

There’s a beautiful passage near the end of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, that I would like to use as a frame for why I say yes:

“One expression of this attitude is when we stop and give thanks to God before and after meals…That moment of blessing, however brief, reminds us of our dependence on God for life; it strengthens our feeling of gratitude for the gifts of creation; it acknowledges those who by their labors provide us with these goods; and it reaffirms our solidarity with those in greatest need.”

I love this passage because it neatly sums up for me of the central truth: you must see the joy and dignity in every aspect of life. Part of embracing that truth requires us to reevaluate how we approach our lives.

I fully expect Pope Francis to challenge us. I have seen many headlines framing this as adversarial – “The Pope vs. America,” as one headline in Politico read recently. Yet, these articles misunderstand the Pope’s intentions – we hardly consider the guidance of a loving father to be “parent versus kid”, right? I don’t presume to put words in the mouth of the Holy Father, but he often reminds me of the popular mantra, “Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable.”

As the leader of one of the Washington-region’s largest nonprofits working in human services, I am fortunate enough to count some of the region’s most successful business leaders as friends and dear supporters of Catholic Charities. These are people who care deeply about the well-being of their neighbors and turn to Catholic Charities to help out.

And I am blessed to count many of our homeless neighbors as friends I’ve met at our weekly St. Maria’s Meals Dinner Van.  Many of these folks struggle with some combination of unemployment, addiction, isolation, estranged family relations, behavioral health, and plain bad luck.

Pope Francis, in echoing centuries of Church teaching, reminds us that we cannot make distinctions between our homeless neighbors and business leaders.  He will tell us it is the little things, along with the larger structural factors, that make an impact for both good and bad. How we treat our family impacts how we treat strangers. How we treat our co-workers reflects how we treat those who can offer us nothing in return. How we treat litter reflects how we see the value of the earth, the sources of our food, and the cleanliness of our water.

Which brings me back to the fun we have every Wednesday at St. Maria’s Meals and to some of the friendships between our volunteers and clients. I’ve seen people who were previously disengaged from society start to take small steps towards coming back in. These are people who would not have otherwise come across each other, and I can say with certainty we have all enriched each other’s lives. It starts over a meal.

Many Pope-watchers in Washington expect and hope for concrete policy or strong direction from Pope Francis on any range of issues or topics. Perhaps they will hear something to that effect, but that’s not for me to speculate on. What I do know is that when Pope Francis says goodbye to the Speaker of the House of the US Congress and makes the one-mile drive to meet with 300 homeless residents over lunch, his actions will provide a model for all of us.

Related

Analysis

Pope Francis is Political. To Follow Him, We Must Be Too

Pope Francis is the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and a global celebrity with admirers from many faith traditions. On the eve of his first-ever visit to the United States, Pope Francis’s 59 percent approval rating among US adults must make members of Congress—whose approval rating is a dismal 14 percent—weep with envy.

But what makes Pope Francis so much more popular than Congress? Undoubtedly a mix of qualities you don’t find among many elected officials: his humility, his joy, and his embrace—sometimes quite literally—of the elderly, the disabled, the immigrant, and the prisoner. But don’t be fooled by his distinctly un-politician-like authenticity or his defiance of partisan labels—Pope Francis is a savvy political strategist.

In public appearances and written commentary, Pope Francis often weighs in on the pressing political issues of our time. He has shared opinions that are grounded in hundreds of years of Catholic teaching—on the economy, immigration and refugee crises, institutional corruption, the environment, and armed conflict. He has flexed political muscle in some of the most intractable international relations challenges of modern time, praying for peace with leaders from Israel and Palestine and helping to secure newly restored diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. And his encyclical on the environment—released this summer in order to influence December’s United Nations Paris Climate Change Conference—implores world leaders to help reduce carbon emissions in their countries to curb the effects of climate change.

If, like the Pope, we can be faithful and fearless, our prophetic witness can stir the political will to fundamentally reshape our society.

When he visits the US this week, we will see Pope Francis’s politics come to life. He will visit the White House, Congress, and the United Nations, as well as DC Catholic Charities, a school in Harlem, and a Philadelphia prison. He will walk a path from our nation’s seat of power to the margins of our society, inviting us to follow him and, in the process, asking us to partner with him in building a more just society.

In fact, you can already see political will being stirred by Pope Francis’s call. The Vatican is leading by example in responding to the global refugee crisis and housing refugee families from Syria. In Chicago, Archbishop Blaise Cupich has reaffirmed Catholic support for just wages and has challenged right-to-work laws that weaken unions. And, in light of the Pope’s encyclical, more than 150 leaders from Catholic institutions of higher education have pledged to make ecological justice central to their work.

When Pope Francis visits the US this week, we must resist the cynicism of critics who think his political call to transform structures of injustice is unbecoming of a spiritual leader. As he insists, “A good Catholic meddles in politics.” And we must push back against tired rhetoric from politicians who talk about social ills more than they work to solve them.

Pope Francis’s visit is a challenge to us all to build a nation that more fully embraces the dignity of our homeless, our workers, our families, our immigrants, and our incarcerated sisters and brothers. If, like the Pope, we can be faithful and fearless, our prophetic witness can stir the political will to fundamentally reshape our society. Take notes while Pope Francis is here, and when he leaves we’ll have an inspired to-do list.

Related

Analysis

New Census Data Demand Action on Inequality and Poverty

The U.S. Census Bureau released data this week showing little to no improvement in poverty and family incomes in 2014, despite a falling unemployment rate.

This frustrating state of affairs is directly related to high levels of inequality and stagnant wages, which have kept poverty rates much higher than they should be given that we’ve had more than five straight years of economic growth. The problem is that despite workers’ increased productivity and higher levels of education, the economic gains have concentrated at the top of the income ladder, leaving workers with flat or declining wages and chronic economic insecurity.

It’s clear that we need more aggressive action on inequality and poverty. But, at the same time, the Census data also confirm the dramatic role that our social insurance and assistance programs play in protecting families from hardship and boosting economic security for low- and middle-income families.

For example, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes into account a more comprehensive set of family resources and expenses, shows that last year Social Security lifted 25.9 million people out of poverty and the Earned Income and Child Tax credits kept 9.8 million people out of poverty. Similarly, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and affordable housing protected 4.7 million and 2.5 million people, respectively. Moreover, recent research shows that without our nation’s social safety net, the poverty rate would be nearly twice as high—with nearly 30 percent of Americans living in poverty!

The safety net assists working-age people across all levels of education. The combination of these programs—ranging from Social Security and Unemployment Insurance to nutrition assistance and tax credits for working-class families—boosted the average income of the most vulnerable workers by 22 percent.  For working-age people with a post-secondary education, average incomes increased by between 6 and 12 percent.

shareable for census

These policies don’t just lift families above our meager poverty line. They boost long-term employment, educational, and health outcomes for children, and increase family economic security in an economy that is increasingly only working for the wealthy few.

In order to build on the successes of these programs we need to act now and implement policies that we know work: boost wages and labor standards for low-wage workers and promote full employment; invest in nutrition, education, affordable housing, healthcare, and tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC); and remove barriers that keep people trapped in poverty such as our broken criminal justice system and predatory loans.

Thankfully, we’re seeing progress on many of these fronts.  We learned from the new data that last year the Affordable Care Act resulted in the largest drop in the uninsured rate since the Census Bureau began tracking it— there were 8.8 million fewer people without health insurance than in the preceding year.  There is now bipartisan momentum to reform the criminal justice system.  Workers are organizing for a higher minimum wage in states across the country.  Finally, a new overtime rule from the Obama administration would boost pay for millions of workers.

The bad news is that vital programs are at risk of cuts. Conservatives have already indicated that they will not make a routine fix to Social Security’s funding formula without extracting a pound of flesh through cuts to critical programs for people with disabilities. Key provisions in the EITC and CTC are set to expire in 2017; if Congress fails to act, it would push 16 million Americans into poverty or deeper into poverty. The House and Senate Republican Budgets deeply slash SNAP and Medicaid. And the tight caps and cuts to annual funding levels caused by sequestration and the Budget Control Act of 2010 have left critical investments such as those in affordable housing and education vulnerable to even deeper cuts.

Basic economic security would be weakened by conservative budget proposals this year, despite the fact that no policymaker’s district is immune from poverty. The tables below shows the poverty and child poverty rates in the districts represented by Members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, which have jurisdiction over key antipoverty programs like Social Security, and the Earned Income and Child Tax credits.

The new Census data underscore that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to reducing poverty and inequality. We know the good policies that we need right now.  It’s time to turn up the heat and call on all of our representatives to make good policy a reality.

House Committee on Ways and Means

Name Party District Overall Poverty Rate Child Poverty Rate
Paul Ryan R WI-1 11.75% 17.47%
Sam Johnson R TX-3 7.14% 8.96%
Kevin Brady R TX-8 12.57% 17.02%
Devin Nunes R CA-22 21.46% 28.46%
Pat Tiberi R OH-12 10.25% 11.58%
Dave G. Reichart R WA-8 10.35% 13.15%
Charles W. Boustany Jr. R LA-3 17.61% 23.20%
Peter Roskam R IL-6 5.72% 7.73%
Tom Price R GA-6 9.63% 14.13%
Vern Buchanan R FL-16 11.99% 19.19%
Adrian Smith R NE-3 12.98% 16.77%
Lynn Jenkins R KS-2 15.30% 23.23%
Erick Paulsen R MN-3 6.43% 8.96%
Kenny Marchant R TX-24 10.61% 16.48%
Diane Black R TN-6 14.81% 20.04%
Tom Reed R NY-23 17.17% 22.97%
Todd Young R IN-9 14.42% 17.63%
Mike Kelly R PA-3 13.26% 19.22%
Jim Renacci R OH-16 7.63% 10.03%
Patrick Meehan R PA-7 6.63% 8.16%
Kristi Noem R SD-At Large 14.17% 17.67%
George Holding R NC-13 10.60% 14.77%
Jason Smith R MO-8 20.56% 28.08%
Bob Dold R IL-10 9.79% 12.87%
Sander M. Levin D MI-9 14.89% 23.31%
Charles B. Rangel D NY-23 29.77% 38.90%
Jim McDermott D WA-7 12.31% 12.68%
John Lewis D GA-5 23.95% 38.13%
Richard E. Neal D MA-1 15.46% 23.03%
Xavier Becerra D CA-37 23.24% 32.47%
Lloyd Doggett D TX-35 25.34% 35.91%
Mike Thompson D CA-5 11.83% 14.40%
John B. Larson D CT-1 11.74% 16.62%
Earl Blumenauer D OR-3 18.19% 23.00%
Ron Kind D WI-3 13.82% 15.82%
Bill Pascrell Jr. D NJ-9 17.25% 24.03%
Joseph Crowley D NY-14 17.57% 24.60%
Danny Davis D IL-7 25.00% 37.13%
Linda Sanchez D CA-38 11.53% 14.47%

 Senate Committee on Finance

Name Party State Overall Poverty Rate Child Poverty Rate
Orrin G. Hatch R UT 11.73% 13.00%
Chuch Grassley R IA 12.24% 14.92%
Mike Crapo R ID 14.85% 18.53%
Pat Roberts R KS 13.56% 17.37%
Michael B. Enzi R WY 11.19% 12.10%
John Cornyn R TX 17.17% 24.31%
John Thune R SD 14.17% 17.67%
Richard Burr R NC 17.22% 23.96%
Johnny Isakson R GA 18.30% 26.09%
Rob Portman R OH 15.84% 22.54%
Patrick J. Toomey R PA 13.60% 18.99%
Dan Coats R IN 15.24% 21.18%
Dean Heller R NV 15.24% 21.74%
Tim Scott R SC 17.99% 26.73%
Ron Wyden D OR 16.55% 21.10%
Charles E. Schumer D NY 15.93% 22.24%
Debbie Stabenow D MI 16.20% 22.19%
Maria Cantwell D WA 13.19% 17.01%
Bill Nelson D FL 16.50% 23.50%
Robert Menendez D NJ 11.10% 15.67%
Thomas R. Carper D DE 12.48% 17.51%
Benjamin L. Cardin D MD 10.11% 12.70%
Sherrod Brown D OH 15.84% 22.54%
Michael F. Bennett D CO 12.04% 15.12%
Robert P. Casey, Jr. D PA 13.60% 18.99%
Mark R. Warner D VA 11.80% 15.47%

Related

Analysis

Hey, CNN: Three #TalkPoverty Questions for the Reagan Library Debate

Editor’s Note: This piece continues a campaign at TalkPoverty.org where advocates and people struggling to make ends meet will ask 2016 presidential candidates about how they would significantly reduce poverty and inequality in this country. Here are four more questions that should have been asked at the last presidential debate. 

We encourage you to ask questions of the candidates and join the conversation using #talkpoverty and #familiesvote.

The upcoming Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, California offers prospective leaders of the largest economy in the world a chance to speak to the concerns of the 106 million Americans who are struggling to make ends meet. The looming question facing the working and middle class is this: how do we build a system that works for all of us?

The first Republican debates ran three and a half hours with 17 participants. The moderators failed to ask the kinds of questions that force candidates to say exactly how they will create opportunities for Americans being left behind. Even worse was the reinforcement of false and offensive stereotypes. When Fox News anchor and debate host Martha MacCallum asked—“How do you get Americans who are able to work to take the job instead of a handout?”—she effectively called millions of struggling Americans freeloaders.

We need a debate with powerful solutions, not tired stereotypes.

Yet the next debate will be held at the library dedicated to the President who created or propagated many of the stereotypes that are still used to demonize people who are struggling in our economy. Ronald Reagan is seen by many as a hero—a Dirty Harry who told it like it is and stood up to friend and foe alike. But to many low-income families, he is a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge, who—like the famous miser—exerted his power in a way that has made it harder for people to lift themselves up.

We need a debate with powerful solutions, not tired stereotypes.

Reaganomics was rooted in the idea that if we build an economy that puts the interests of the wealthy first, then the benefits will trickle down to the rest of society. His formula was one part tax cuts for the well-off, and three parts dismantling labor unions, cutting spending on social programs, and neutering government oversight.

The rigged rules of today’s economy are the logical conclusion of Reagan’s approach to public policy.

“In so many domains, the course was set in the 1980s,” says Luke Shaefer, a University of Michigan professor and co-author of $2.00 A Day, Living on Almost Nothing in America.  “Reagan set the course and the [politicians] who have come afterwards have taken it even further beyond.”

In our continuing series on the presidential debates and poverty, we asked Americans how Reagan’s economic legacy affects them and what they want to hear from the presidential candidates.

‘The King of Rhetoric’ pushes the stereotype of the ‘Welfare Queen’

One of Reagan’s enduring legacies was his deft use of rhetoric to push his ideas. None was more harmful than the label “welfare queen,” a pejorative term he coined that has become synonymous with black single mothers who receive public assistance.

For Gloria Walton, it is a deeply personal slur. She grew up poor in Mississippi with a single black mother who worked all of her life in minimum wage jobs to make ends meet.

“My mom was working and needed public assistance to help make ends meet,” she says. “But Reagan demonized black women with this idea of the welfare queen. It’s offensive.”

Today, Walton is the president and CEO of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) in Los Angeles, training low-income adults in careers that will help them sustain their families. She says SCOPE combats the effects of Reagan-era policies like deregulation and cuts in federal programs, as well as wage stagnation, which have all devastated low-income communities.

Walton wants to ask all of the presidential candidates: “Economic inequality has widened. In my city, per capita income is $13,243 in South LA and $128,000 in Bel Air. What can you say to the hard-working men and women of South L.A. to justify this historically unprecedented income gap?”

The wealthy few get richer

Since Reagan, the gap between the wealthy few and the rest of us has reached historic proportions. After-tax incomes of the top 1 percent grew almost twice as quickly as they did for middle-class families between 1988 and 2011, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office.

Reagan’s efforts to weaken unions in order to strengthen corporations helped increase the gap because it reduced bargaining power and the number of well-paying jobs. When he fired striking air traffic controllers during his first term, it was considered an opening salvo on labor and a signal to corporations that they came first. Today, 11 percent of workers belong to unions, compared to 20 percent in 1983. One result has been a rise in temporary workers with few or no benefits. There are almost 3 million temporary workers in the U.S. today, more than double the approximately 1.2 million temporary workers in 1990.

Sonya Spann, 50, is one of those workers. She earns $11 an hour as a billing contractor for an insurance company in Birmingham, Alabama. Spann has no health or retirement benefits, or paid sick or family leave. But this was the best job she could find after the hospital where she worked shut down. Her husband lost his full-time job during the recession and now picks up hours working at a retail store for minimum wage.

“Every time we try to get off our knees and attempt to stand up, we get the rug pulled out from under us,” Sonya says. “What would you do in my situation and what are you going to do to create family-sustaining jobs?”

Cuts in federal programs

Current efforts by legislators to cut SNAP, require drug testing of recipients of nutrition assistance, or implement other punitive measures that reduce the number of people eligible for government aid, all grow out of the Reagan tradition.

Reagan also eliminated or cut programs that significantly funded city budgets, cementing a pattern of disinvestment in low-income urban communities that continues to limit opportunities today. He also cut funding for public service jobs and job training, gutted federally funded legal services for the poor, and reduced funds for public transit.

Pat Jones, 63, sees the effects of this deprivation on her south LA community. It is a neighborhood wracked by poverty and a lack of jobs, where families struggling to make ends meet on the minimum wage must choose which utility is the most important to pay that month, she says.

“We look at the job market here and a lot of us can’t qualify for jobs or there are no training programs,” she says. “Corporations run everything. Reagan did that.”

Jones asks all presidential candidates: “Everybody has to pay their fair share of taxes, but corporations and the wealthy have a string of exemptions and loopholes. Why can’t they pay their fair share and what are you going to do to increase investment and opportunity in low-income communities?”

Here’s hoping that presidential candidates in both parties start answering the questions that people who are struggling want answers to.

Related

Analysis

AmeriCorps Facing Foolish Cuts

As Congress returns to the business of figuring out how to fund the government in the next fiscal year, young people engaged in service in communities across the country are concerned about the consequences of proposed deep cuts to AmeriCorps. There are currently 73,600 AmeriCorps positions. The House Bill would cut 25,000 of those slots, while the Senate Bill would cut 20,000.

Either scenario would mean that thousands of low-income and disconnected young adults would miss the valuable opportunity to serve their communities, and their neighbors would miss out on the vital services that AmeriCorps members provide.

As CEO of The Corps Network, a network made up of more than 100 Service and Conservation Corps, I am extremely concerned about the potential consequences of these cuts on low-income youth and their communities.  In 2014, more than 10,500 of our Corps members were living below the poverty line, on public assistance, or were court-involved upon entry into the program. Many of these young adults were also out of school. But instead of seeing them as liabilities, we view them as “Opportunity Youth,” because of their enormous untapped potential and their desire to improve their own lives and the world around them.

As an AmeriCorps member in The Corps Network, a young person receives a stipend or living allowance to perform service projects in their communities and on public lands. These projects range from planting trees and gardens, to building playgrounds and parks, to restoring degraded environments and habitats, to weatherizing and retrofitting low-income housing.  In order to undertake this work, Corpsmembers learn technical skills and earn professional certifications.  Their experiences help them advance their education, gain hands-on work experience, and develop skills in communications, teamwork, and leadership.

I’ve been talking with our Corps about the potential impact of the proposed Congressional cuts, including with several staff and participants at the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), located just outside of Chicago.

“We might have to close. AmeriCorps and additional private funds leveraged through AmeriCorps are especially important,” said Robert Shears, YCC’s Executive Director.

YCC Corpsmember Samuel Myers told me about how AmeriCorps service has helped him transform his life.

“If not for AmeriCorps I would still be on the streets. I would not have career goals—nothing like that,” said Myers. “YCC AmeriCorps helped set me straight. [I] feel good at the end of the day because I get to do things for people that they want to do but can’t. I wish more people would realize how important it is.”

Of particular concern to both Shears and Myers is the possibility of losing funding for the AmeriCorps Education Award that can be used to pay for postsecondary education.

“The award is a huge incentive for youth to join,” said Shears. “We’re focused on trying to help those Corpsmembers get through at least their second semester of college—that would be impossible without the AmeriCorps Education Award.”

“I am going to need some help to even think about going to college,” Myers added.

Shears noted that the cuts proposed by Congress might seem pennywise but they are decidedly pound foolish.

The very programs that strengthen our young people, our communities, and our nation need to be fortified, not torn down.

“There are few [programs] that provide both education and jobs skills to local young people while also providing important community benefits,” said Shears.  “Youth who are disconnected from work and school are a much greater burden on the tax system than those who are using our program to break out of poverty. Our members also serve as important role models in their disenfranchised communities.”

Many of the service projects are specifically designed to help low-income communities address environmental justice issues.  Corpsmembers turn abandoned lots into parks, playgrounds, and gardens; install energy-saving (and money-saving) retrofits in low-income homes; plant trees and organic urban farms in places that lack green spaces; cut down invasive trees and deliver the wood to families in need in rural areas; and provide community education around environmental health issues. Through AmeriCorps funding, the Corpsmembers are making a difference in their own underserved communities ranging from rural towns and Native American reservations to low-income neighborhoods in our country’s biggest cities.

Julian Amos is another YCC AmeriCorps Corpsmember who said that without the program he “would be on the streets right now.”  He also pointed to the tangible results he sees in his community.

“Feeding people, and helping build a house for a low-income family—all of that is helping out,” he said. “It also helps people like me get to where [we] need to go—into jobs and college. I’m just trying to get my foot in the door.”

The opportunity AmeriCorps offers is especially important in the wake of a recession as young people who have limited experience and few marketable skills suffer the most.

As a 2013 study conducted by The Corporation for National and Community Service found: volunteers without a high school diploma are 51% more likely to find a job than non-volunteers; people from rural areas who volunteer have a 55% greater chance of finding employment than non-volunteers; and volunteers who have been out of work have a 27% greater chance of finding a job than out-of-work individuals who do not volunteer. In short, young people who participate in AmeriCorps – regardless of their socioeconomic background – improve their chances of finding employment, getting on a career pathway, and becoming a productive adult and citizen.

Because of the AmeriCorps cause and the clear pathway to greater economic security that the program offers, demand already hugely outpaces available AmeriCorps slots. In 2011, 582,000 AmeriCorps applications were received for only 82,000 slots. As a result of budget cuts, AmeriCorps slots presently stand at around 73,000—now Congress is considering cutting that by another 25,000.

The very programs that strengthen our young people, our communities, and our nation need to be fortified, not torn down.

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