INDIVIDUALS

Think about poverty, and how it impacts our community. Consider how it taxes our economic health, community resources, education, health care and neighborhoods. 

Change your mindset about people who live in poverty by thoughtfully considering their financial, mental, emotional and/or physical limitations and the barriers that prevent them from getting ahead in the absence of healthy relationships and adequate resources. 

Choose to become part of the solution by taking action in support of our efforts to reduce the number of people living below the federal poverty line in Escambia County by 50% by the year 2020.

Take Action:

VOLUNTEER your time, connect people with resources and/or provide funding in support of the numerous ongoing programs, special events and grassroots initiatives sponsored by Poverty Solutions Team. 

• Serve on a Poverty Solutions Team Action Team to get involved and make a difference, leveraging your skills, knowledge and/or passion. 
• Attend one or more of the training programs to learn about PST’s approach to combating poverty.
• Serve as an ally to a person moving out of Poverty with the Bridges to Circles Initiative. 
• Provide a meal for a Weekly Community  Meeting
• Facilitate a Getting Ahead Course
• Advocate for public transportation
• Utilize free tax preparation services
• Donate food or clothing
• Work on Habitat home construction
• Tutor an adult learning to read
• Mentor a school student

Stay engaged as long as your contribution is meaningful.

BUSINESSES

Consider your investment in charitable endeavors benefitting the community at large, experiment with an in-reach approach that looks first at your struggling employees--one that builds hope, trust, and charity from within. 

Acknowledge the working poor among your ranks, i.e., those earning wages that are not enough to lift them above poverty because they lack the education, resources. and/or ability to change their circumstances on their own. 

Take Action:

• Train all employees in Bridges Out of Poverty concepts
• Provide free income tax preparation services and FDIC Money Smart workshops for employees who earn low wages
• Provide your working poor with convenient access to community resources; consider hosting a Getting Ahead Fair (perhaps co-hosted with neighboring businesses) with onsite representation by agencies such as Families Count, Catholic Charities, Habitat for Humanity, Financial Stability Coalition, Escambia County Health Department, Escambia Department of Community Services, Department of Children and Families, Northwest Florida Legal Services, Head Start, Council on Aging, ECAT, Boys and Girls Club of Escambia County, and Early Learning Coalition. 
• Develop a culture of caring with the delivery of targeted employee advocacy programs such as free or low interest loans with principal pay downs automatically withdrawn from paychecks, job advancement training for low-wage earners, car pool coordination, team supported home repairs and tutoring, and preventative health care. 
• As a means of building mutual trust, advancing learning and promoting teamwork, encourage all team members to participate in lunch-and-learn money smart sessions; in one or more sessions, make employees aware of the pitfalls of pay day loans, rent-to-own plans, and tax refund anticipation loans, and provide them with alternative choices. 
• Encourage your employees living in generational poverty to participate in a Getting Ahead class as a segue to the Bridges to Circles program; recruit one or more employees to participate as Getting Ahead facilitators and/or Bridges to Circles Allies. 

Make the commitment to reach inward as long as you think you have the potential to build healthy relationships with and for your working poor.

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