Easter Hope to End Child Poverty: Spring 2013

Church of the Brethren Christian Citizenship Seminar 2013

Christ is risen, and Easter hope is alive among Christians working to end child poverty. Check out our Spring newsletter.

Read about how:

* the Church of the Brethren cultivates Christian citizenship ethics and skills in youth

* West Virginia and North Carolina faith leaders are tackling child poverty

* you can write to Congress and tell them how the Sequester is hurting children

* you can attend the Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry.

Read about all this and more here.

Easter Blessings,

Shantha

Child Poverty Focus in 2013 Christian Citizenship Seminar for Church of the Brethren Youth

Each year for decades, The Church of the Brethren has hosted a week-long Christian Citizenship Seminar to foster civic education and leadership development among youth. In 2013, the seminar focused on how child poverty harms the development of families and communities. (See the promo materials here.) The group of 45 youth and their advisers examined how limited access to proper nutrition, housing, and education can have repercussions throughout the child’s entire life. They gathered to seek to understand how political and economic systems can be leveraged to create change in children’s access to basic human necessities, in their own states, and in the country as a whole. You can see their full advocacy ask for their legislative visits below, and click here to see a video overview of their week. They learned how Christian faith, expressed in theology and action, informs and shapes a Brethren response to child poverty.

Speakers included:

• Rev. Shannon Daley-Harris, Director of the Children’s Defense Fund Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, former chair of the National Council of Churches Children and Families Committee (which drafted the NCC Policy Statement “The Church and Children,”) and author of Our Day to End Poverty: 24 Ways You Can Make a Difference.
• Sarah Rohrer, Deputy Director of Organizing and Grassroots Capacity Building, Bread for the World
• Norah Deluhery (Acting Director), Roxana Barillas (Deputy Director), Daniel Cohn (Emerson National Hunger Fellow), USDA Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
• Jerry O’Donnell, Press Secretary for Rep. Grace Napolitano CA-32
• Shantha Ready Alonso, Poverty Initiative Director, National Council of Churches
• Nate Hosler and Bryan Hanger, Church of the Brethren Advocacy

They also watched the film “Inocente.” Inocente is an Oscar nominated documentary about a homeless teenager trying to make a life for herself in American society. Watch the trailer here.

The Christian Citizenship Seminar has had a big impact on many young people over the decades. 2011 and 2012 participant Evan Leiter-Mason said “As a person of faith, I believe that I cannot be neutral in politics. My experiences at CCS even inspired me to take further action by interning with the Advocacy and Peace Witness Office last summer. And now in college, I plan to study political science and economics so that I can be empowered to be a part of solutions to challenges facing today’s world.” He continues to encourage youth to participate. (Read his full reflection on the 2012 seminar here.)

“CCS has been an important pillar in the Church of the Brethren’s efforts to not only teach our youth about public witness but for them to actually witness to the peace of Christ expressed in caring for need, justice, and opposing violence,” said Nate Hosler, Church of the Brethren Advocacy Officer. “This program is important as both a ministry to and by Brethren youth. We imagine and pray that not only will they be shaped by this experience but that the church as a whole will learn to more faithfully continue the work of Jesus.”

This year’s seminar was planned by the following Church of the Brethren staff: Becky Ullom, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry; Nate Hosler, Advocacy Officer; Rachel Witkovsky, National Junior High Conference Coordinator, and Jonathan Stauffer and Bryan Hanger, Advocacy Assistants

2013 Christian Citizenship Seminar “Advocacy Ask”

2013 Christian Citizenship Seminar

Childhood Poverty

 

We as individuals and as a church are working to address poverty and human need in our communities, nation, and globally. We are especially concerned with the impact of poverty on children. We call on Congress to take aggressive steps to maintain funding for critical programs supporting children both domestically and internationally. Such programs must support quality nutrition, education, and housing.

Reflecting the Need:

• Childhood poverty is both a tragedy for the child and negatively affects individuals throughout their lifetime. The first 1000 days from pregnancy until age 2 are critical for adequate nutrition.
• More than 48 million Americans, including more than 16 million children, live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Globally 925 million people suffer hunger and almost 16,000 children die every day from hunger-related causes.  Inadequate nutrition both inhibits development in children and hinders their ability to succeed in school.
• In some situations, children must work to support their family and are pulled out of school. Inadequate childhood education dramatically reduces the ability of individuals to care for themselves, their families, and contribute to local community and economy. While childhood poverty does not mean that the individual is fated to this, it does make success much more difficult.
• Homelessness and unstable housing puts a child’s future success at greater risk. Transitory housing also disrupts schooling and the ability to build strong social relationships and networks. The movement of upper-income families and individuals back into city centers along with the foreclosure crisis has greatly reduced the supply of stable and affordable housing.

We ask the United States Congress and Administration to:

• Increase support for primary and secondary education
  • Federal education programs play a key role in ensuring all children have access to an education, regardless of family background or income. Nearly 50 million children are educated in public schools, many of which are in dire need of renovation and modernization.
  • Today, there are many challenges impacting the quality of education our nation’s students receive. At a time when education funding is being drastically reduced, we must keep in mind the cornerstone role education plays in personal success, innovation, and the economy.
  • Support flexibility to promote innovative and effective models of education.
  • US policy should strongly support the Millennium Development Goals as the world pushes to achieve these goals by 2015. MDGs 1 Eradicate Extreme Hunger and 2 Achieve Universal Primary Education are particularly important for addressing childhood poverty.
  • Ensure affordable housing, especially in urban contexts which are prone to sharp increases in the cost of housing.
    • Demand for rental housing is increasing due, in part, to the foreclosure crisis. This has forced rental prices to escalate and has created two significant new challenges in the affordable rental market. Low-wage workers are struggling to find affordable rentals, and the high unemployment rate exacerbates the need for additional units that are affordable to very-low-income and extremely low-income households. We call on Congress to provide additional units of housing that are affordable to very-low-and extremely low-income households by funding the already authorized National Housing Trust Fund.
    • Protect and Strengthen federal programs that support the nutritional needs of children.
      • The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps households put food on the table during times of great need, keeping millions out of poverty. Nearly half of SNAP participants are children. Additionally, more than 20 million low-income children participated in the National School Lunch Program in 2011. While the same children are also eligible for the School Breakfast Program and the Summer Food Service Program, only about half received breakfast and 10 percent received summer meals. During the continuing budget debates it is imperative that these programs are protected.
      • Teach nutrition through school gardening programs which demonstrate growing, food preparation, and environmentally sustainable living.
      • Congress should support robust international food aid and improve its nutritional quality. Many majority world countries have rapidly expanding populations with high percentages of children and youth. If these young people are healthy and have opportunity they will avoid the risk of social instability and be a dynamic force in their communities.

For more information, or with questions, contact:

Nathan Hosler

Coordinator, Office of Public Witness

Church of the Brethren

nhosler@brethren.org

(717) 333-1649

Momentum to tackle child poverty in West Virginia is growing.

Momentum to tackle child poverty is growing in the state of West Virginia.

Roman Catholic Bishop Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston called for listening sessions throughout the state of West Virginia. He then drafted a moving pastoral letter on child poverty “Setting Children Free: Loosening the Bonds of Child Poverty in West Virginia.” Along with that pastoral letter, he promised $100,000 in matching grants to support parishes and schools in fighting child poverty. Most recently, he has become a leading voice in the call for Medicaid expansion in the state.

Meanwhile, United Methodist Bishop Sandra L. Steiner Ball also made a call to action to emphasize child poverty in church on February 24th, 2013. As a result, many churches talked about child poverty during their services, and Dunbar United Methodist Church even made and played this educational video. She also urged them to go to the West Virginia Capitol on February 26th asking for change along with the West Virginia Council of Churches and the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition. She has followed up, emphasizing the importance on continuing to seek justice and working to end poverty in this opinion piece.

John Unger, West Virginia Senate Majority Leader, a member of the National Council of Churches Pastors Ending Poverty network, and a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, often visits schools and asks: “What would be one thing you would change in the school if you could?’ ” Unger said. Students suggested they create an extra lunch period. Unger why they would want an extra lunch. A boy spoke up. “He said, ‘That way I can eat an extra lunch before I go home so I won’t have to eat mommy and daddy’s food, so they’ll have enough for my brother,’ ” Unger remembered. This moved Senator Unger to call for a committee on child poverty in the WV State Senate. His proposal was accepted and the committee has has already successfully passed legislation through the West Virginia Senate to establish a “Feed to Achieve” school breakfast program.

The West Virginia Council of Churches is actively working with the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition to do the hard work of mobilizing a large base of people that will push to make a difference. Director of the West Virginia Council of Churches Rev. Jeff Allen explained, “I think that this is our generations’ unfinished agenda.  While it might seem outrageous to attempt to cut child poverty in half in ten years, I can think of nothing more outrageous than to do nothing and to leave a third of West Virginia’s children in poverty.” Rev. Allen previously worked for the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, but the leadership of the West Virginia Council of Churches on child poverty goes way back. In fact, just last week, the immediate past Director of the West Virginia Council Rev. Dennis Sparks published a powerful op ed in the Charleston Gazette condemning politicians in Washington, DC for ignoring the suffering of those in poverty: “There is real hardship in our nation, of a type and intensity that elite Washington participants in the never-ending budget drama never consider and probably can’t imagine. Those politicians attending fundraisers in Capitol Hill townhouses tonight, discussing over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres how to solve our budget dilemma by cutting kids from Head Start, or making Medicaid less accessible, or eliminating job training, must never have seen want in a child’s eyes, or desperation on a senior’s face, or the grim determination of the long-term unemployed.”

West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition has helped foster much activity in faith communities through a widespread listening campaign. Much of their organizing and direction to end child poverty came from community conversations.  Director Steve Smith explained their methods and plans: “We just completed 47 community meetings around the state asking ‘What does child poverty look like here?’ That’s given us a platform of 10 issues we want concrete progress on. We’re building a voice of West Virginia’s kids and families for West Virginia’s kids and families. There’s a tendency to think advocates are fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves, caring for someone else’s kids. While we need advocates of all stripes, one of the reasons we aren’t making more progress is because there are not enough people in leadership positions who are directly affected by child poverty.” To learn more about the work of the Healthy Kids and Families coalition, email Steve Smith at ssmith@wvhealthykids.org

Durham Faith Summit on Child Poverty

In January 2013, clergy, ministerial leaders, and the faithful gathered in Durham to generate solutions to Durham’s child poverty crisis at a Faith Summit on Child Poverty. Organized by the Durham Partnership for Children, summit co-chair and planner Winnie Morgan believes this summit will not only be significant for Durham; it may create a model for gathering community resources around solving the challenges of child poverty in other cities, too.

The Summit was attended by hundreds, and more than one hundred individual promises to make a difference on child poverty, in whatever particular capacity that individual was able, were made at the conclusion of the summit. “The turnout for the Summit was remarkable, both in numbers (about 450) and in the breadth of groups represented. I am grateful for the many Durham congregations with ties to the NC Council which took part; several of them were held up as examples of work already being done to address causes of childhood poverty,” said George Reed, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches.  Click here to see pictures from the Summit.

Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness traveled to North Carolina to speak to and accompany participants at the Summit. He encouraged people of faith to take a role in building children’s self esteem, as well as “training a whole family about what they ought to be to one another – building a loving bond with relationships that will be significant to that child’s future.” Nelson said that poverty and unemployment create anger, violence and depression among young people, and he looked at the audience and said: “The question at the end of the day is: What in the world are you going to do about it?”

Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP in North Carolina, explained the rationale for holding the summit: “We need to open our eyes, and stop the Sunday-morning denial” that 25 percent of North Carolina children live in poverty. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said. “We commit ‘attention violence’ against the poor every day, because we don’t even say the word ‘poor’,” he said. “Martin Luther King said that when you ignore the poor, one day the whole system will collapse.” Politicians seldom talk about the poor, Barber said, but say that focusing on the middle class will help everyone. But Barber recalled the time his grandmother told him that a house should never be moved from the middle, but from the foundation. “If you try to move a house from the middle, that does not work,” Barber said. “You will tear it apart. But if you move it from the bottom, then everybody in the house gets blessed.” Barber said the nation has reached “a moral crisis” on the poverty issue. “When we decide to accept that some communities are going to have 12 to 20 percent poverty and that there’s nothing we can do, we must remove that blind spot,” he said. “If we don’t address it, the cost to our souls and the state will be too high.”

The event was co-sponsored by the Durham Public Schools, Dept. of Social Services, Durham Congregations in Action, Durham CAN, NAACP-Durham branch, Duke Medicine, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, Duke Chapel, Duke Divinity School, Healthy Families Durham, East Durham Children’s Initiative, Partnership for a Healthy Durham, United Way of the Greater Triangle, Living the Word Ministry-Durham, the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Methodist Federation for Social Action (The Jack Crum Conference on Prophetic Ministry), and the North Carolina Council of Churches.

Resources/Strategies for reducing child poverty in Durham
Winnie Morgan, Faith Initiative Coordinator for the Partnership and Co-Chair of the Faith Summit, put together a growing listing of opportunities for faith involvement with agencies, non-profits, and community groups that work with underserved children and families in Durham.  Some of the many strategies/needs on the list include: donating blankets and diapers to Durham Connects; volunteering with “Get Set, Get Ready, Let’s Read” with the Durham County Library; donating safety kits, health kits, and parent/child interaction kits to the Exchange Clubs’ Family Center; and mentoring young pregnant women through Pregnancy Support Services.  Please contact Winnie at winniewmorgan@juno.com if you have needs to be added to this list.