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poverty Archives - Page 2 of 3 - ChangingMedia

Aug 25
0

Investing in the Leaders of Tomorrow

By | Social Enterprise, The Thagomizer | One Comment

A bad credit history was the only thing keeping the 19-year old James Ward from attending Howard. Ward had been homeless for most of high school but had worked hard and managed to get into a large university. However his mother’s bad credit made him unable to get student loans that would financially enable him to go. So, showing a spark on ingenuity, he found a different way to fund his college education. Ward started a campaign called “Homeless to Howard.” Using only a Tumblr blog and Paypal account he was able to launch an online campaign that helped him raise $12,000, enough for his first year of college.

Access to credit is one of the many “poverty traps” that exist today, mechanisms that create the cycle of poverty and limit inter-generational mobility. Having no credit is just as bad as having bad credit and it is hard to start credit if no-one in your family has good credit. Today, credit can affect your access to everything from an apartment, utilities, cell phones, and as in the example above student loans. Not having credit excludes you from accessing affordable services and loans that allow you to work your way out of poverty.

Luckily new ways of financing are starting to evolve. In the developing world where a student loan system doesn’t exist, microloan systems are coming in to fill the void. Vittana allows people to make $25 loans to students across the world to pay for their education. Graduates make on average 2.8 times more than before and thus there is a 99.8% repayment rate. Two years ago, Kiva, a well known global microlender announced it would start providing small, no-interest loans for student’s education in countries across the globe. Kiva got in the business because they recognize that financing student loans are not appealing to most lending institutions interested only in return. Students have no collateral, require long terms and grace periods, and often have no prior credit history. Making student loans is more appealing to a organization like Kiva where investors are more focused on making social change than getting a financial return.

Lumni, which now operates in the United States asks investors to think of students like start up companies. Through Lumni, investors fund student’s education and those students must promise to give investors back a percentage of the income they make for their first ten years out of college. A deal like Lumni means investors care not only about whether or not the student can pay back the student loans, but how successful they become. They become stakeholders in the student’s future and will do more to make sure they succeed.

student-debt

Cartoon by Jeff Parker

American students today leave college with massive amounts of student debts. My generation has seen first hand what happens when you come out of college with loan repayments to make and no good job in site. When faced with a choice of taking a low paying entry-level job at a company that will be an in to your career and a slightly higher paying job at Starbucks, many graduates must chose the latter so that they can start making repayments. Furthermore during their first years, they often shovel so much back into paying off their student loans that they don’t save anything which can cause further financial instability and could result in more debt if any other emergency or need arises.

In contrast a new system, in which loan makers are invested not only in getting a return, but also in student success could not only increase access to funding for education for students like James Ward, but create a system that ensures better success and financial stability for our college graduates. Instead of investing in immediate returns, these social enterprises invest in the future. This allows students to have a grace period to make decisions that will set them up for further success in the long run. It’s a triple bottom line approach that could ultimately lead to larger profits both monetarily and socially for all involved.

Jun 14
0

Silos

By | Health, Silo-Breakers, The Global Is Local | 3 Comments

Specialization- the process by which we have achieved space flight, agriculture, engineering, science, industry, efficiency, and ninjas.

Although specialization can lead to excellence, it can have unintended consequences or stem from conditions of disparity.

A meandering anecdote now follows: My wife and I took her grandfather to the Museum of Industry a few weeks ago. As a lifelong tinkerer, woodcrafter, history buff, and political activist, it was in many ways an ideal activity for his 91st birthday visit here in Baltimore. If you haven’t been there, I recommend it. The quality of the overall experience was very impressive, including a complimentary docent tour with admission. It was through the docent that we learned about the specialization that took place among the industry workers in Baltimore circa 1900.

Many of the examples of specialization were impressive — for instance, oyster shuckers could move at an amazing pace, as could all the other piece-workers responsible for prepping, canning, and labeling the products moving through the factories. This led to safe, affordable food that could be distributed for hundreds of miles to the significant benefit of the nation and the industries that operated the workshops and factories.

On the other hand, the labor that powered these engines of industry were often entire families, including children. In addition, some of the hardest work was the only work that African Americans could get hired for. Injury and death in turn of the century factories was a fact of life. Also, although useful, mastery of oyster-shuckery has limited transferability, and mobility to other, safer or more lucrative occupations was very difficult.

So, despite the wonderful things that specialization can and does produce, it can be caused by (and reinforce) racism and poverty.

A phrase that gets used a lot in social science, among other disciplines, is silos. The word evokes a stark image in my mind, isolated towers full of a single kind of stuff. Efficient? Yes, of course. But who wants just one kind of stuff? Diversity is essential for a complete experience. Despite my hereditary love of bread, I am certainly not about to limit my diet to strictly bread. [OK, add some cheese, and then maybe….]

Silos are perhaps an effective analogy for the partitioned experiences we have in our day-to-day lives as well. We have our professional personality, colleagues, and activities, and our private versions of the same. Little self-silos if you like. Groups of social contacts broken up by shared experiences and backgrounds — the group you exercise with, the group you party with, the group we have children’s playgroups with.

I’ve been thinking about silos and the efficacy of innovation for a couple weeks. I attended an event recently which brought together social entrepreneurs to problem-solve some issues that a half a dozen organizations brought to the table over a few hours. As is often my experience in Baltimore, there were people from very different backgrounds, different ages, men and women, all with a passion- via their own silo — to effect positive change in their city and the world.

Breaking down the walls of their own pet projects to contribute their energy toward projects outside their silos gave each participant a sense of the universe of other silos outside their own. At the end, however, one bold woman pointed out that the full diversity of the city was not well represented. The targets of many socially beneficial projects in Baltimore are the residents and environments in poor, predominantly African American neighborhoods, and yet members of these communities are very often neglected when the invitations go out. Not by intention, but as a result of the natural process of silos. Specialization, remember, tends to focus similar energy and resources into a self-contained cluster. The organizers, by the way, acknowledged the challenge and committed to a conscious effort toward broadening the population of participants.

I would like to suggest a similar challenge for each of us this week:

First, identify your silos. Where are you most comfortable? Who do you hang out with most often? How do you work toward your ideals?

Next pick one of those silos and break out of it for a day. Remember, you’re reading this because you have at least a passing interest in innovative, transformative social change. Switching brands of jelly does NOT count, even if it was made by a local organic producer. Bring someone into a new social circle; allow their views to inform the activity, conversation, and menu. Get outside your comfort zone, talk to someone you disagree with, and finally, share your experience with others on digital and interpersonal social networks.

Jun 06
0

Couch Surfing: The Last Stop

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

I have this facebook friend — one of those people I used to know and do not keep in touch with much — who last week updated his status to ask if he could crash at someone’s place. “Help” he wrote, “I’m about to be literally homeless in New Jersey.”

At first, I was infuriated. How dare he pretend to be undergoing the same plight as the people I know who are experiencing homeless? As a middle class, college-educated guy I went to high school with, he couldn’t possibly be “really” homeless.

Then I did my research. As it turns out, couch surfing is a lot closer to homelessness than I originally realized. The 2012 Annual Report to Congress named “doubling up,” or living with a friend or relative as the most common previous housing situation for people entering homelessness. While most people can offer a guest room or at least a pillow for a night or two, many cannot afford a permanent house guest. Furthermore, living in such close quarters puts stress on even the best of relationships. For these reasons, a couch might be the last stop for someone before becoming homeless.

Does this mean everyone who finds themselves caught between a lease for a few days is entering the homeless system? Certainly not. Still, it is dangerous to believe that we or the people we know are immune from this experience. In the 2013 State of Homelessness in America Report, The National Alliance to End Homelessness stated that economic need has driven people to double up at higher rates in 39 states. From 2010 to 2011, New York State saw an increase of 26 percent in the number of households that doubled up, while Massachusetts rates increased by 25 percent. The ten states that saw a decrease in doubling up were mostly southern states, but also included Alaska and Kansas, both with double digit declines. Generally, those areas with lower property values did not see the staggering increases that the rest of the country experienced. This suggests that even when working, many individuals are unable to pay for rooms or apartments at the average market rate.

mapMap: The National Alliance to End Homelessness

Because the 2013 State of Homelessness Report uses data from 2011, some newer studies suggest this trend has started to correct itself as the economy improves. While moving off the couch is certainly an improvement, this group represents a “hidden homeless” population, because they are more difficult to count in homeless censuses or Point-In-Time counts for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As the economy improves — or as tensions run high with housemates, this population will begin to look for affordable housing. It is dangerous to assume that the current demand for housing is an accurate representation of the need for such homes. In 2009, the need for affordable housing outnumbered the amount of safe units by 5.5 million. Four years later, the situation has not improved. There are many people who have been waiting in the wings — friends’ spare rooms, basements, and living rooms — for a place of their own.

Affordable housing has never been prevalent enough or affordable enough for everyone, but it is more crucial now than ever. There is a large group of people that used to live independently, and likely have some income, who are ready and willing to become tenants and homeowners. They just need properties at the right price to let them do so.

My facebook friend found a place for the night and has since moved into a new apartment. Others, though, are still waiting for a place they can truly call home.

May 16
0

Vision Driven Change

By | Health, The Global Is Local | 2 Comments

A few nights ago my wife and I had a conversation with our friend Peter. In contrast to our method of deciding our fate (last minute panic combined with procrastination and our desire to live in the moment), Peter was describing himself as vision-driven in his decision making process. By coincidence, the following morning I sat among a large group, including my fellow ChangeEngine blogger Scott Burkholder, loosely organized around the concepts of social entrepreneurship and a vague but optimistic vision of a better city.

These conversations have given me pause for thought, and to consider the role of this social innovation/social change blog platform. Our group of authors approaches the challenge of promoting positive social change from a variety of perspectives, and most of us have personal investment in the projects and programs that we write about.

I’ve occasionally thought that the quote attributed to Ghandi on a million self-satisfied bumper stickers — “Be the change you want to see in the world” — might be an appropriate mission statement for ChangeEngine. I looked up the phrase and found that he has been misquoted for the purposes of bumperstickerability. As corrected by the New York Times:

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”

Not surprisingly, Ghandi is a smidge more complex and a tad more profound than the sentiment captured on a bumper sticker.

My conversation with Peter and the breakfast group the following morning centered around the potential for individuals and small groups to generate substantial change. Both interactions emphasized the importance of envisioning a better place, even if the precise vision of a better future is vague. In a way, it doesn’t really matter. The effort counts.

Making an effort toward positive change almost certainly shifts the expectations, changes the conversation, and re-frames the possibilities for a community in need of transformative positive change. If Ghandi were a statistician, he might have talked about shifting or weighting the mean, if he were a talk show host, he might have talked about seeding the audience, but since he was an agent of transformative change, he talked about changing ourselves in order to change the world.

Hasdai Westbrook, our editor extraordinaire and Change-Monger-in-Chief, regularly reminds me to consider the social innovation components of the various issues that I address in my columns, and often this is a challenge for me when writing about burgeoning pandemics in Saudi Arabia. Today, however, I am struck how the health of the city is affected by all of its residents and their activities. Planting community gardens and socially responsible investment are both contributers to the same vision, and are relevant to the health of the greater community.

Barton, H.; Grant, M., 2006. A health map for the local human habitat. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health

My beat is Public Health, with local and global implications. At its core, Public Health is concerned with trends and interventions at the population level. While those in the research and analysis end of the field must be driven by process and procedure, those engaging in interventions must be driven by vision.

No public health intervention is undertaken without a vision of a better future for the population, but I believe that the definition of health intervention should be broadened considerably. From urban farms to the Mayor’s public safety initiatives to public art projects, there are a great number of activities taking place in Baltimore (and around the world) that directly and substantially impact population health. These activities impact the education, nutrition, economics, safety, and appearance of our neighborhoods, which can have a profound impact by shifting the mean toward a healthier city and and a healthier world.

Next time, The Gluten Wars, A Health-Conscious Society Loses Its Mind

May 02
0

I Bike, You Bike, We Bike, He/She Bikes!

By | Health, The Global Is Local | 2 Comments

(The third in a Spring series about bicycling in Baltimore: Who should do it, how, and why?)

Welcome back, whether you are bike-aholic, bike-curious, or bike-phobic! I hope you have enjoyed following the biking series as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing it. Today’s post will be the final in this series, but don’t worry, there will be additional bike-related commentary in this space in the future.

First, Who should bike in Baltimore?

Leading by Example: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, courtesy of her Twitter feed

Well, if you have read the previous posts in this series, B’more Bike Friendly and Bikemore in Baltimore, you may have gotten the sense that I advocate for more biking by more people. If that hasn’t come through, let me take this opportunity to state clearly that I think everyone ought to bike in the city. If you feel like you want to be connected and informed and involved with the place you live and work, it’s important to experience it outside the sterile environment of your car.

You may or may not already be pedaling your heart out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be convinced. According to Chris Merriam of Bikemore, there are some accepted statistics about who is and isn’t likely to bike.

The 1%: These people will bike anywhere, anytime. Fearless, possibly a little obsessed, they probably have a giant stash of bikes in their hallway.

The 9%: Confident but Cautious. We in this group, while glad to bike most places most of the time, are willing to admit that there are times and places that biking is not appropriate. Some roads are not safe, some weather isn’t worth it, and sometimes we’re tired and don’t feel like it.

The 60%: Interested, but Concerned. You know how, you may own a bike, you may bike on protected bikepaths in parks, but there are some barriers to making the jump to occasional bike commuter or city cyclist- concerns about safety, for instance.

The 30%: Not Interested. No thanks, no matter what. Chris tells me that he thinks this is OK, not everyone needs to bike, he is interested in focusing on the 60%. Education about sharing the road and biker awareness are his interventions for the 30%.

Second, How should people bike in Baltimore?

As we said over the past two columns, there are some safety concerns about biking in an urban environment, so my answer to this would be: Carefully. If you aren’t biking often or at all, but are willing to give it a shot, there are a few ways to try it in a safe and supported environment.

– Bike To Work Day is on May 17th, and there are convoys that will meet at points all around the city to bike in to the downtown area in the morning. They are listed on the Baltimore Metropolitan Council site, join up and ride in! Throughout the city will be stations offering bike maintenance, breakfast and coffee, and educational materials.

– RecRide and BikeJam is a Bike MD event on May 19th where bikers can get out and see the city before coming together for music and food in Patterson Par.

– Bikemore Homebrew Tour is this Saturday, go register, we can bike together and sample local beers!

– Baltimore Bike Party will almost certainly be on May 31st, since it’s always the last Friday of every month.

After you try one of these group events, some recreational cycling is just a short psychological leap, and after that you are well on your way toward joining the happy bike commuters of Baltimore.

Finally, Why should you (or anyone else) bike in Baltimore?

We’ve touched on this before, and I won’t belabor the point. There are substantial physiological, psychological,  and economic benefits to exercise in general. Biking or walking to work magnifies those benefits while contributing to the health of the neighborhood, city, and world. Taking cars off the road during commuting hours is extremely important for local emissions reductions and global environmental sustainability. With billions more people in the developing world joining us in clogging up the roads with lungs and our lungs with their toxic emissions, the global and local truly come together at the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

It’s Spring, go out, get connected, and save the world!

By the way, the new banner by Hasdai is awesome, isn’t it?

Also, shameless self promotion- Pottery Sale in Annapolis on Saturday.

Apr 08
0

An End to Cash?

By | Social Enterprise, The Thagomizer | No Comments

In my last post I discussed why giving cash to people in poverty might be the best option. However according to Bill Gates there may be an even better way. The Gates Foundation along with several other partners have formed the Better Than Cash Alliance to promote electronic payments over cash. Gates believes replacing electronic benefits with cash can more effectively lift people out of poverty while being cheaper and more transparent for governments.

One of the pros to electronic payments is that it makes it easier for people to see where the money is going and get financial services. Apps similar to Mint.com could be created to easily show people where they are spending their money and provide suggestions for spending it in a more sustainable way. Research has shown switching to digital payments increases access to savings accounts and encourages people to save, making it easier for them to lift themselves out of poverty. Mobile technology combined with online banking and education could put financial literacy and management training in the palms of every person in poverty throughout the world.

Electronic payments could also help woman gain more control over their financial futures in male-dominated societies. With cash, it is easier for a husband to take money from a woman but with electronic money in her name it is easier for her to keep and choose where money is spent. Electronic payment can also make it easier to prevent all kinds of theft and fraud and ensure that any money given goes to the intended recipient.

But one of the major problems I have with this, indeed really the only reason I still carry cash, is the cost to small businesses. One of the valuable qualities of cash is that it can be exchanged anywhere. You can use it to pay for a hot dog on the street, for admission at the door of a concert, or for your baby sitter when you return home that night. Most of these vendors aren’t going to carry around a credit card machine anytime soon. At least in America, accepting credit and debit cards means paying fees on every transaction and buying technology to process it. If your income is limited to electronic payments it can cut out microentreprenuers like my beloved hustlers.

Innovations such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s latest project Square might change that. He has created a small device that can plug into an iPad or cell phone and take credit cards anywhere. However it still comes with a 2.75 percent fee for every transaction, meaning less money is going to your community and more money is going to credit card companies.

Could electronic payments revolutionize the way we handle money? Certainly I would love to have a financial planner in the palm of my hands, monitoring my decisions, and providing tips for ensuring my personal financial sustainability. It could help more people in poverty have control over their financial futures. However it could also further restrict our freedom to exchange and hurt some of the creativity and ingenuity that happens on a small scale in our economy. I’d be the first to agree we need something ‘better than cash’ but I think the jury is still out on whether electronic payments are it.

IMAGE CREDIT. CC Photo by Flickr user epSos.
Mar 25
0

Let Them Eat Subway

By | Social Enterprise, The Thagomizer | 2 Comments

I was walking down the street this weekend when two homeless men stopped me to ask for a couple of dollars to buy a sandwich. I told them I didn’t have cash on me but one of the men suggested that I could just go to Subway and buy them the sandwich on my credit card. I agreed and while we were waiting for the sub, he says to me “It’s a shame you didn’t have cash, we would have been able to get cheaper food.” Now my first thought was something akin to “You ungrateful SOB,” but then I realized he was right and in fact being a good steward of my charity. If I had given him the seven dollars I spent at Subway he might have been able to go to the corner store where he could have gotten a decent meal for $4 and still had $3 to put toward his next meal. If I wanted more bang for my buck in terms of impact on his empty stomach I should have just given him cash.

This is a problem with our welfare system as well. There are programs to pay for heating, food, medical expenses, etc. but they are all in separate pots and restricted for a limited purpose. Not only does that mean people are forced to go to dozens of different places with different application processes to meet their needs, they are also not able to budget in a way that works for them. This has led to a black market where people sell or trade their food stamps  to pay for rent, shoes, heat, diapers and other necessities. While some people are appalled by the business of buying and selling welfare benefits, the practice allows people to make ends meet.

So why don’t we just give out money? One argument you hear frequently is that by giving a sandwich I at least know my money is spent on food. If I just gave the man $7 he could have used it to fuel the addiction which caused him to be on streets in the first place or for some other nefarious action which would have left him off worse than before and still hungry. The giving of sandwiches is intended to ensure that the money doesn’t go toward actions that would hurt the recipient but it also prevents them from doing anything with the money that might help them, so that, possibly, they would not need me to give them a sandwich. You can’t build financial stability by saving food stamps in a bank account and then using them to pay your heating bill in the winter. In that way it undermines the financial health of the recipient. The system of earmarking donations assumes that the recipient has become poor because they don’t know how to manage their money. So we take control of their financial future.

Malcolm Gladwell points out that any cost that helps a person out of homelessness is far more cost-effective then just meeting their presumed needs in this fascinating piece. He gives the example of a program in Denver that gives chronic homeless people free apartments because the cost of providing an apartment and a case worker is far cheaper than the housing, medical, and other expenses that come as a result of having them out on the streets. Fellow ChangeEngine author Jasmine Arnold offers another example in her blog about asking versus assuming the needs of homeless people. She cites an article from The Economist profiling a charity called Broadway, which moved 84 percent of their clients off the streets simply by asking individuals what they needed to improve their lives. To quote The Economist piece: “The most efficient way to spend money on the homeless might be to give it to them.”

I’d like to challenge the assumption that the way the givers of welfare earmark funds does a better job in lifting people out of poverty than the way the recipients would spend it. As economist  Uwe E. Reinhardt argues, it is in ineffective. If we are looking to maximize the impact on the recipient per dollar we give then we should give money not benefits. Why? We aren’t experts in other people’s needs. What we think people need might be different than their reality but the walls we’ve built around their benefits prevents them from accessing those funds for anything beyond our understanding of what should lift them up from poverty.

Let’s stop defining people’s needs for them. If we’re going to maximize our impact on someone per dollar spent, we’ve got to stop assuming we have the answer and start asking some questions. Let’s stop giving sandwiches and start helping people get the reigns back on their financial futures.

 

IMAGE CREDIT. Courtesy of cobalt
Feb 04
0

On the Edge of Difference

By | Social Enterprise, The Good Plan | 2 Comments

I would bet many of us have heard the remark, “you’re from Baltimore? Have you seen The Wire?” and I can guarantee you, nothing aggravates me more. The widespread media portrayal of our city implants a preconceived notion we as residents must balance with the greater picture. I have seen The Wire. And while there is lots of truth to the visual disgrace and social injustice captured by HBO, there’s more to Baltimore than Bunk and Bubbles. In our city, poverty is constantly around the corner from stability.

In 2010 I heard community revitalization guru Storm Cunningham speak at TEDxMidAtlantic. Inspired by his approach, I insisted on showing him around when he came to Baltimore in 2011. We looped around the inner harbor and down The Block. With the Pussycat Club providing the appropriate backdrop, he made a remark to the tune of “this is right here? And the harbor is right there? I would have had no idea. They’re just two blocks apart.” We certainly aren’t all crabcakes and waterfront, but we aren’t all Lake Trout and vacants either.

There is often the “out of sight, out of mind” excuse for inaction, yet in the City of Baltimore this is impossible. The social equity discrepancies of the city are perhaps especially jarring because of the proximate adjacencies. It’s hard to find the bad without driving through the good, and vice versa. But I advocate that seeing the other side of the coin can dispel ignorance and foster comprehensive planning.

People proximate to us in place are more likely to have opinions we consider to be valid, though there are only so many recommendations for the familiar. The beauty of distinct neighborhoods is the ability to find the best of something different. Walking outside my census tract I’m opened up to new food, markets, services. The ability to exchange information and break out of sameness is an action any of us can take to transcend the cross-neighborhood divide and enhance and diversify our own community.

Perhaps planning in Baltimore is slow or, dare I say, one-note when it comes to alleviating the impoverished, but by going one street further we can get new references for a world that is not our own, integrating something new, and perhaps eventually, define our neighborhood as one block larger than it used to be.