Circles Initiative coach Stephanie Moss, left, and community liaison Shirley Paulison have continued the battle against poverty at the local level thanks to financial support from Leadership Sandpoint 2011. (Photo by DAVID GUNTER)
DAVID GUNTER
SANDPOINT — Just what is it about Sandpoint that makes it rally in the face of Draconian cuts in state and federal budgets to support programs at the local level?
A prime example of the community’s positively contrarian nature came up recently when the Leadership Sandpoint Class of 2011 raised several thousand dollars to keep the fight against poverty on track for families in this area. Earlier this month, members of the Circles Initiative group were left scratching their heads when they found themselves $4,000 short of being able to mount this year’s Getting Ahead class — a 15-week intensive that teaches participants how to break the cycle of poverty in their own lives. After a Cinco de Mayo fundraising effort, Leadership Sandpoint made up the difference and put the class back on course.
“Leadership Sandpoint is tasked with picking a community project at the end of their nine-month class time and after spending one of our class days learning about non-profits in the area, we were all touched by Transitions in Progress Blue Haven House and the Circles Getting Ahead program,” said Kate McAllister, executive director for the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the two-year-long Leadership Sandpoint classes. “What appealed to us about the Circles program was it teaches the participating families how to ‘fish.’ It isn’t a handout program — it’s a hand up program.”
Getting Ahead now is entering its fifth year and has trained about 60 people in the inner workings of breaking out of poverty, as well as understanding the “rules” for climbing the economic rungs into the middle class.
“That can start with opening a savings account for the first time, paying off debt, getting out from under payday loans or seeking higher education,” said Stephanie Moss, a Circles coach who works out of the Community Action Partnership office in Sandpoint.
“It takes time, but these people are making real progress,” added Shirley Paulison, who coordinates the group and acts as a community liaison. “Nobody’s getting a free ride here.”
The relationship with Leadership Sandpoint closely mirrors one of the main pillars in Getting Ahead’s structure — that of developing allies in the cause. Volunteers who step into that role are asked to “make relationships across class lines,” Paulison explained. Doing so sets up a crosstalk that can be equally educational for both parties.
“I have a prime example of that,” Moss said. “One of our Circles members had their car break down and the ally told them, ‘Just take it to the shop.’”
After learning that the vehicle was the family’s only source of transportation and that “just taking it to the shop” presented both logistical and financial problems, the ally realigned her view of how the world operates and worked with the individual to come up with a solution.
“They came together and worked as a team to figure it out,” Moss said.
“In that case, the ally learned something about what it’s like to be in poverty,” said Paulison. “That’s where the heart comes in.
“People can’t change what they don’t know,” she went on. “But I really think if people knew what poverty is like, there would be the will to change things.”
According to the CAPS office, the face of poverty in Bonner County has been changing, creeping ever farther up the class system ladder to claim new victims in a tough economy. Along with families who are just plain broke, there are the “working poor” who paddle as fast as they can at two or more minimum wage jobs but never manage to get ahead. They have been joined in recent years by new entries into the world of the poor — families struck by “situational poverty.”
And, in the big picture, most of us are just one major illness or a company layoff away from falling into the same category.
“Because of that, this year we saw a lot of new applicants seeking services,” Moss said. “And a lot of those people are losing their homes.”
To generate awareness of the human cost of poverty in the community, Circles is hosting a three-hour “poverty simulation” workshop on May 27 from noon-3:30 p.m. at the Ponderay Events Center. The role-playing workshop is designed for social workers, city and county officials, pastors and anyone else seeking to deepen their understanding of “the state of chronic crisis” that afflicts poor families. Those who attend will experience what Circles leaders call an “awakening” as they spend the equivalent of living a month in poverty in three hours’ time.
A similar investment of time from allies, Moss said, is all that’s needed to help turn the tide of poverty. In just a few hours per month, they can keep Getting Ahead class members on track with their plans and goals toward that end.
“If you think about it, that’s three or four hours spent to change poverty in our community,” Moss said. “We spend that much time waiting in traffic.”
Even with the financial support from Leadership Sandpoint 2011, the CAPS office in Sandpoint still falls under shadow of the Congressional budget-cutting axe. At present, elected federal officials are discussing cuts that would halve the money going to the more than 1,000 national CAPS offices that currently assist some 17 million low-income Americans through support services as varied as Head Start, home weatherization programs, job training, housing, food banks, energy assistance and financial education.
In Bonner County, a bright light has cut through that shadow in the form of local support for on-the-ground programs like Getting Ahead.
“Sometimes you just need someone to believe in you,” McAllister said. “Speaking from personal experience, it is very difficult to overcome generational poverty. It takes serious dedication from everyone involved to get out of a situation that is all you’ve ever known.
“Getting Ahead gives those families who are willing to participate in the program the skills and networking opportunities they didn’t have before, or for that matter, didn’t even know existed,” she added. “It’s a great return on investment — the entire community benefits as families continue to raise themselves up to economic vitality. In turn, they are role models for the next generation and their future success. There is a true language barrier when you grow up and live in poverty and Circles breaks down those barriers with the help of wonderful community volunteers called allies.”
“Our allies are cheerleaders, they’re listeners and support people,” Paulison said.
“And in the end,” Moss added, “they become students themselves.”
