Eliminating Poverty in Delaware County

Raising Awareness of poverty and emerging local initiatives:

Launching

NetWork One

and

Mobilizing Community-wide volunteers

September 2005

Research:

Zeroing in on the problem

Center Township Trustee/TEAMwork for Quality Living

The Center Township Trustee is charged with caring for the poor of Center Township.  TEAMwork for Quality Living is a nonprofit grassroots convener dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of the residents of Delaware County.

After Muncie participants in the 2001 All-America City finals were stumped by the judges with a question about what work is being done “as a community” to address poverty, several participants continued to be disturbed.  Reducing and eliminating poverty needed to be a community imperative.  However, many community leaders from the government, business, education, healthcare and faith sectors have continued their own isolated commitment to the community and have taken little or no opportunity to look at the issue of poverty and its collective impact on our community.  For there to be a community imperative, there must first be widespread information and awareness.  In part, because the Partners for Community Impact and Cardinal Access initiatives were rolling out, the timing for kicking off this awareness-building was ideal. 

In September 2004, Dick Shirey and TEAMwork convened a group of eighteen community citizens, many of whom were representatives of organizations serving those in poverty.  The initial mission of the group was to create a Focus on the Future Poverty Summit, to bring people into awareness of the local problems.

During this time, a subcommittee was formed to collect poverty-specific data.  That data included information such as the fact that the county is spending up to $1.2 million in direct costs per month on food stamps alone!  The key numbers collected may be seen in the booklet the group produced, the Poverty Service Providers Booklet, a directory of the 97 local agencies/organizations serving those living in poverty.  In addition, a five-minute audiovisual presentation, very stark and direct in its style, was developed for the Summit and may be viewed at www.teamworkql.org

A Moment of Truth:

Zeroing in on the problem

On April 5-6, 2005, the Poverty Summit Steering Committee hosted “Focus on the Future:  A Moment of Truth Poverty Summit.”  The committee had gone through a complex brainstorming and voting process to list potential invitees and to narrow the list to the key community leaders whose participation would mean the most to the success of any future initiatives.  Nearly 200 leaders and members of the public attended an evening presentation in which the local poverty statistics were presented.  The keynote was delivered by Dr. Jerry Pattengale, a national author, lecturer and humorist who grew up in poverty and challenged everyone that “the dream has to be greater than the struggle.”

On the second day of the Summit, 35 community leaders participated in the “Life in the State of Poverty” simulation, the rights of which were purchased by the Trustee from the Missouri ACTION agency. Participation in the activity, discussion with low-income members of the presentation team and conversations with 30 service providers about existing services occurred.  The final step that day was that the service providers and participants worked together to discuss various barriers to poverty and to identify action opportunities for individuals and for the community at large. 

The results of the day-and-a-half Summit were astonishing.  A flurry of e-mails identified individuals, neighborhood associations and groups that wanted to be involved.  Of particular note was that one well-respected retired business leader/elected official was so moved by his simulation experience, that he has made eliminating poverty in our community the new focus of his life. He is working with TEAMwork, the Center Township Trustee, and others to help heighten awareness of the problem and opportunities for creating jobs and changing the face of poverty as we know it. During the summer, he made 2-4 visits every day to business leaders, church leaders, educators and healthcare leaders to encourage them to learn about poverty and to begin the transformational mind shift to realize that striving to eliminate poverty needs to be a new long-range priority for the community.

Building awareness:

Waking up to the poverty problem

The poverty simulation is de signed to help participants begin to understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family trying to survive from month to month.  It is a simulation not a game.  The object is to sensitize participants to the realities faced by low-income people.

In the simulation, 30-85 participants assume the roles of up to 26 different families facing poverty.  Some are newly unemployed, some are recently deserted by the “breadwinner,” and others are recipients of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, formerly AFDC), either with or without additional earned income.  Still others are senior citizens receiving Social Security or grandparents raising their grandchildren.  The task of the “families” is to provide for basic necessities and shelter during the course of four 15-minute “weeks.”

The simulation is conducted in a large room with the “families” seated in groups in the center.  Around the perimeter are tables representing community resources and services for the families.  These services include a bank, super center, Community Action Agency, employer, utility company, pawn broker, grocery, DFS (welfare) office, payday and title loan facility, mortgage company,, school, and child are facility.

Volunteers, persons who have faced or are facing poverty, are recruited to staff the resource tables and to assume the roles of police officer and an “illegal activities” person.

The experience lasts from two to three hours.  It includes an introduction and briefing, the actual simulation exercise, and a debriefing period in which participants and volunteer staffers share their feelings and experiences and talk about what they have learned about the lives of people in poverty.

Direct costs for the simulation include lunch for the training session for the low-income volunteers and a $15 gift certificate to thank them for their participation.

In May and June, the Center Township Trustee, TQL and the Poverty Steering Committee hosted two more simulations.  In the first three spring simulations 120 adults and youth participated.  In partnership with Purdue University Extension representatives, the Purdue Institutional Review Board evaluation of the program showed:

• 89% of the participants had “gained more, to a lot more” knowledge
• 87% of the participants planned to become involved in issues/programs to address poverty
• 35% plan to lobby for governmental changes
• 42% plan to volunteer with an existing organizations
• 18% plan to join a work group
• 18% plan to do “other” work

Involving youth

It became obvious after the first simulation that for the adult participants to have the most valuable experience, they needed to play the roles of breadwinners.  With the second and third simulations, home-schooled youth and 4-H junior leaders played the roles of children, giving the adults a chance to be in the more rigorous adult roles.  Involving youth enabled them to observe and experience lessons learned as a family member living in poverty

In August, TEAMwork for Quality Living received at United Way youth grant to continue to involve youth in the Poverty Simulation experience.  The funding will help provide “scholarships” for the direct costs associated with the simulation.   A corps of youth volunteers are being recruited through schools, church youth groups, service groups, etc. to fill in the adult simulations as children and youth.

A total of 160 Muncie Central High School students will participate in two-hour simulations September 20 and 22.  Southside High School plans to host simulations later in the fall.  Delta High School students will participate in a simulation at Union Chapel Ministries on September 23.  In addition, youth will likely participate in a simulation which First Presbyterian Church is planning for later in the Fall. 

Expanding the number of local facilitators

Delaware County has two trained facilitators to present the Poverty Simulation, both members of the TEAMwork staff.  Efforts are underway to train others in the community to facilitate the simulations so that the window of opportunity to address the demand for simulations can be maximized.

Emerging employment initiative:

Network One

NetWork One is a pilot project with possible application throughout the state of Indiana and elsewhere.  It is envisioned as a part of an overall blueprint for Delaware County, the purpose of which is to eliminate poverty.

Purposes 

• To eliminate poverty through out the community.

• To produce employment.

• To supply the employer and business community with top quality employees.

Tactics

• To create, develop and eventually to operate a non-profit volunteer agency, in partnership with Work One, that helps relieve poverty in Delaware County by networking job seekers and influential members of the community in order to demonstrate the willingness and readiness to work of the unemployed, and to improve the overall quality of life in the community.

• To create, develop and eventually operate a non-profit agency whose purpose is to foster entrepreneurs and new businesses in Delaware County by providing on-the-job training through mentoring, and making available the use of professional equipment and materials

• To partner with the private sector to create, develop and participate in a barter exchange system for Delaware County in order to provide networking opportunities for NetWork One associates to work and reap economic benefits in the period prior to becoming employed or establishing their own businesses, without losing their exiting social service benefits.

Organization

Pat Miller of WorkOne, and his Board of Mayors and Commissioners in these five counties:  Delaware, Henry, Blackford, Jay, and Randolph

Founders of NetWork One:   Michael Boyd*, Jennifer Vance, Laura Perry, Jeff Hager, Robert Jones*, and Jenny Clay (*Employed as of this report)

• Advisors:  Steve Cooper (Community volunteer), Mellisa Leaming (Work One), Dick Shirey (Center Township Trustee), Molly Flodder TEAMwork for Quality Living)

• Volunteer Labor Force

Assets

• Facilities:  Office, Computer, Telephone and other office supplies,

Vehicles:  Pickup trucks, trailers, work tools, safety equipment. (To be loaned or rented).

Components

• Boot camp, (community volunteer program).  These volunteers would receive some credit for the job searching responsibilities currently required by the State of Indiana in recognition by potential employers that they are ready and willing to work.

• Business Placement volunteer 2-4 weeks.

• WIA through WorkOne.

• Total employment, leading to a long term relationship between employee and employer.

• Entrepreneurship to help find funding for NetWork One volunteers to start their own business.

• Time bank –voucher program developed as a reward system

Long-range funding plan

• Grant Applications to various local, state and national funding sources

• Initial Employment of Director, followed by successive employment of Assistant Director, Project Director, Time bank/Voucher Development Director, and Marketing Director.  These positions to be paid at the rate of $9.00 per hour on a 40 hour work week

• Eventually salaries, operating overhead, and other expenses will create an operating expense of $200,000 annually

Additional funding needs (Some of which could be traded in a Time Dollars Bank)

·         Childcare

·         Transportation and mechanical costs

·         Clothing

Mobilizing volunteers:

Goals and Timeline

Mobilizing grassroots volunteers

Developing and enhancing relationships

Because it is difficult to start-up initiatives in the summer, that time was used for initial planning by the committee and the actual involving of volunteers is just gearing up at this time.

The following efforts are in the early planning stages:

Phase I—Summer, 2005-Ongoing

1. Mobilizing individuals to work in existing efforts to help those in poverty or to formulate new initiatives to assist, creating a social marketing model first to learn more about what the impoverished need and want.  (Process:  Directing existing volunteers to the volunteer opportunities in the 97 poverty-agencies with volunteering opportunities.)

2. Supporting and promoting NetWork One.  (Process:  Sharing the Work One/NetWork One initiative with all those with whom the simulation is conducted and with those who wish to be involved in the eliminating poverty.)

3. Strengthening partnerships with Marion/Grant County as they continue their journey to eliminate poverty.  (Process:  Capitalize on the relationship between the communities via Julie Metzger, Gannett publisher of both papers, and through the work done for the PBS Connectors grant WIPB-produced documentary of Poverty in the two counties.)

Phase II—October 2005

4. Enhancing the possibility thinking of local residents by exposing them to the work of Move the Mountain Leadership Center (MTMLC), the best practices they are seeing in communities across the country and the way in which they can help communities realize what they might be like if the rate of poverty could be addressed and eliminated. (Process:  Bring Move the Mountain to Muncie October 4-6 for a community forum and small-group discussions about moving forward to eliminate poverty.

Phase III—December—Ongoing

5. Partnering with other local groups to create a social marketing model to learn more about what the impoverished need and want and creating a sustainable model for carrying out long-term partnerships to address those needs. (Process:  Sharing findings among providers in order to best understand and work with those living in poverty.)

6. Implementing an asset-based initiative to identify community assets to address poverty, individuals’ assets to bring to the situation and assets of those in poverty so that the best of all involved can be brought to bear, ultimately using that asset information to create a mentoring system to enable individuals and groups to assist those in living in poverty with basic life skill assistance that will help break the cycle of poverty. (Process:  Conduct asset identification exercises and develop mentoring groups, using Network One members as the pilot group recipients for the process.)

7. Creating a Time Dollars™ bank to be used by the community and individuals, organizations and agencies to recognize and reward doing the right thing for others. (Process: Create a work group that will monitor and coordinate the Time Bank initiative.)

Action:

Provide links to services

Linking to volunteering opportunities

What:  Use the Poverty Services Database information in a posted format on the TEAMwork website highlighting the organizations that use volunteers in their efforts to serve the poor.  Provide that website information to all participants in the poverty simulations and make available a hard copy to all those who would prefer not to use the web-based information.

Action:

Partner with Grant Co.

Relationship with Grant County

Develop economies of scale with Grant County as both communities move forward to address poverty.  Maximize on emerging new relationships with Indiana Wesley University, the Mayor’s Office and the City Council.

Action:

Introduce Best Practices

Move the Mountain Leadership Center

 The pioneering work of this Iowa-based consulting firm is in the area of developing long-range blueprints for eliminating poverty.  They are working in communities across the county at both the community and the state government level.

Two principals of Move the Mountain will be in Muncie October 4-6.  Their pioneering work in helping communities across the nation develop long-range blueprints for eliminating poverty will provide valuable “best practices” information as we all move forward in breaking the cycle of poverty.  In addition, one of the principals of the group helped to create and roll out the original Family Development Matrix work in Iowa in the 1970s and 1980s that is now the forerunner of the CAN Network initiat0ve of Partners for Community Impact.

They will talk with and listen to groups in our community and help us get a feel for where we are and where we need to go as many groups move forward in addressing poverty.

Funders include the Center Township Trustee, the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, the Unitarian Universalist Church Forum 1859 Committee on Community Conversations and WIPB TV.  Two other groups whose support is pending include:  George and Frances Ball Foundation and Gannett.

Action:

Share information

Implementing a Social Marketing Model

TEAMwork will coordinate efforts to create a more formalized social marketing model to better document what the impoverished need and want and work with other community players to help craft a way to capture this information and to be able to share it.

Action:

Create mentoring initiative

The faith-based community is interested in developing a mentoring system for individuals and families who live in poverty and would like help in getting out of their current situations.  In addition, the Partners planning has indicated interest in setting up a mentoring program.

Volunteers interested in helping to develop this effort will work with the Center for Life Leadership at Indiana Wesleyan and with local expertise at Ball State University to identify assets of both the mentors and those being mentored.  Models involving those living in poverty in playing major roles have been developed by Move the Mountain will be studied with possible implementation strategies.

Action:

Provide tax-exempt currency

Time Dollars are a tax-exempt kind of currency that empower people to convert their personal time into purchasing power by helping others and by rebuilding family, neighborhood and community.  An hour helping another earns one Time Dollar.  Time Dollars mean turning helping others from a one-way street to a two-way street.  Every act of helping leads to another act of helping, creating a web of support and caring that rebuilds trust and enhances community.

Anyone can earn Time Dollars.  All it takes is being a member of the Time Bank and earning and spending the dollars. 

Time Dollars are not a form of barter.  Barter almost always involves bargaining between two individuals to establish the worth of a good or a service. There is no bargaining with Time Dollars. An hour is an hour.

Time Dollars are not taxable because the IRS has determined that 1) because an hour is always an hour, regardless of what is offered, 2) because they are backed only by a moral obligation and 3) because they are intended for a charitable purpose, Time Dollars are not taxable.

TEAMwork has the Time Dollars banking software (given to our community by an Indianapolis Time Bank) and plans to find the volunteer staffing needed to establish a time bank and to help support it with local business sponsors.

Contact:

TEAMwork for Quality Living

PO Box 468

Muncie, IN  47308

765.747.7158

765.751.3573 (Fax)

teamwork@localnet.com

www.teamworkql.org (Website)

Tax-exempt monetary donations to assist in the focus on eliminating poverty may be made to TEAMwork for Quality Living and marked "for poverty."  Dollars will be used to help support the poverty simulations, to buy materials and supplies for Network One and to bring together people and community assets to assist individuals and families living in poverty.  A portion of these ongoing expenses are being paid by grants from the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, by United Way of Delaware County and by the George and Frances Ball Foundation.