Training focuses at Cape library on poverty mindset

By better understanding the mindsets of people in poverty, those offering help will make more of an impact, according to Carla Fee, a poverty educator in the Cape Girardeau School District.

Fee spoke about how poverty affects learning, language and everyday living Monday at "Living Below the Line," an event sponsored by Love INC of Southeast Missouri.

The training at the Cape Girardeau Public Library was attended by about 20 people, most of whom worked through local churches or community outreach agencies.

"We can't blame victims of poverty for being in poverty," Fee said. "It's easy to sit back and say if they worked harder or if they did this or they did that they wouldn't be in poverty. But people in generational poverty don't have the tools to get out."

She defined generational poverty as two or more generations of one family living in poverty.

"The longer a family is in poverty, the harder it is for them to get out," she said. "The longer children see that poverty cycle, the harder it is for them."

Fee previously served as director of the Cape Girardeau Alternative Education Center and was recently named principal of Central Junior High School.

She discussed the ways those in poverty, the middle class and the wealthy view possessions, time, money, food, education and destiny.

"There are definite sets of rules for poverty, for middle class and for the wealthy. The whole point of training is to better understand where people are coming from so we can educate them," Fee said. "Education is the No. 1 way for people to get out of poverty."

Jeff Fanger, chairman of board of Love INC, an organization that unites people in need with local churches willing to help them, said local relief agencies are seeing an increase in the number of people in poverty seeking help.

"There are people who want to help, but we're dealing with this from a middle-class perspective. We have to learn the poverty way of thinking," he said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 16.7 percent of Cape Girardeau County families with children younger than 18 had incomes below the poverty line from 2005 to 2009. Among families with children under age 5, the poverty rate was 27.4 percent, the survey said.

Fee said now more than 50 percent of Cape Girardeau School District students are classified as living in poverty.

To better understand people from poverty, Fee said, it is important to define poverty as the extent to which an individual does without resources.

"If you work at a church or an agency, one of the key things you can do is try to figure out what resources they already have and what resources you can have an affect on," Fee said.

She encouraged workers to create relationships with those in poverty whom they are helping and to be willing to go into their neighborhoods and homes without judgment.

"It's easy to make those judgments and maybe look down, but they're coming from a different place," Fee said. "It's important to listen to what they have to say."

Language is one of the biggest obstacles people in poverty must overcome, according to Fee.

Most in poverty use only casual language, but many situations, including standardized tests or job interviews, require more formal language.

Many children in poverty aren't exposed to the same number of words as children in middle-class or wealthy homes, she said.

"When we understand their background, we can communicate with them better," Fanger said. "We may not always approve, but we can understand."

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

711 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO