I have the opportunity to work with people living in under-resourced communities. These people live on the margins of poverty and are working hard to make ends meet. These are also people who have amazing gifts and abilities and many would prefer not being in this situation. Yes, I know, some have made choices that brought them to this point (but really haven’t we all made poor decisions before?), but most people are trying hard to provide for their families, move out of poverty and live “the American dream”.
We all have good intentions, we want to help people move forward and we want to see people move out of poverty, but sometimes simple things can stand in the way and I wonder if a few things could be changed that would support our vulnerable families.
Public transportation - people have to rely on pubic transportation to get around, but that is not always easy and timely, making them sometimes late for appointments or costing them half a day to get something done. It also means that times they have to keep their children out of the school for the day because they cannot pick up a child from school in time and make it to the appointment. One of my friends had a doctors appointment for a vaccination shot for her child. She had to take the other children out of school and took the bus for a brief 5 minute visit with the doctor, but the trip back and forth made it a 5 hour ordeal.
Home inspections - living in an apartment means that at times there are inspections, but by them being scheduled during the daytime, people who work have to leave their jobs early and lose that income.
Court appearances - when things are scheduled people have to take time off work etc. but so many times I have seen court dates being canceled or rescheduled without prior notification.
School communication - with thousands of kids in school, technology is an important tool to get information to the parents, but my friends often have new phone numbers (because they are government issued phones) and don’t get the information that is needed for their children to thrive.
Food choices - living in poverty means that they need to stretch every dollar and oftentimes unhealthy foods are much cheaper then healthy alternatives, and often even food pantries choices are not always the best either.

I am sure that nobody is trying to make life difficult for our neighbors and these are easy things that could be fixed and I would like to encourage all of us to look a the systems we have created and think through how it effects people living on the margins. Over the years I have seen some good changes, extended hours at WorkNet and the Welfare Department, surveys to find out what public transportation is needed, Teachers connecting with families that they know are struggling…. So many good ways to help, but lets take the next step and see how we can improve systems that help people move out of poverty.