United Way speaker talks about stigma of poverty

At 43, Margaret Serrano is years past the age one typically finishes high school and looks for opportunities beyond.

But she wants her three children to be proud of her, and she wants a better life, she said Monday during a break from a community event designed to inspire people like her to overcome life's challenges, poverty chief among them.

"Maybe I can get something out of this that will take me a step further," Serrano said.

The daylong event, held at the Osage Centre and attended by Serrano and 35 other adults from Cape Girardeau School District's Adult Education and Literacy Center, was set up by the United Way of Southeast Missouri and hosted by Dr. Donna Beegle, an expert who educates people on how to get out of poverty.

On Monday morning, Beegle shared her own experiences of climbing out of a life of poverty, the negative perspectives people living in it can have of themselves and the steps to overcome those feelings. Before becoming a speaker and author, Beegle struggled as a poor, single mother of two children who had dropped out of school and ended up homeless and drawing welfare benefits.

"I used to think the people who were making it, they were so much better and so much smarter than me," Beegle said. "That's what poverty teaches you. That you aren't right. You internalize that. You start to believe it."

Beegle travels around the country teaching what is known as an "Opportunity Community Model." The model's goal, according to the process outlined on Beegle's website, is to create an approach in communities that "bridges the gap between social service operations and the people who need them by creating a system in which everyone is working together, and people in poverty are given opportunities to realize their strengths and reach their potential for moving forward."

Efforts by community social service agencies to adopt the model in the area served by the United Way, which includes Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City, began earlier this year.

One significant part of the effort is to connect people living in poverty with people who can help them access resources and information they need to improve their chances of rising out of poverty. The event Monday served as a jumping off point for that effort by having volunteer "navigators" attend to connect with "neighbors," or the people living in poverty. Volunteer navigators, through the United Way, makes themselves available for advice-only help to the neighbors by phone and through events.

Becky Atwood, program coordinator for the Adult Education and Literacy Center, said the event was providing a needed service for her students, especially those who were preparing to move beyond school.

"Them being here today is a lot about trust that we are going to send them in the right direction," she said.

Attendees were put through several exercises over the course of the day -- including one that taught them how to find people with the right skills to advise them about a possible opportunity or career for themselves. They were given a list of skills that ranged from fixing cars to taking care of children to cooking healthy meals and asked to find someone else in the room with those skills, and get their phone number.

"You have to admit that you have skills," Beegle said. "And you have to know people are willing to help. But you have to ask."

Various contests throughout the day awarded winners vouchers for gas, rent and utilities. The winner of a drawing in the afternoon was presented with a car.

Beegle also spoke about self-sufficient behavior and how the attitudes of people living in poverty are developed -- and how they can be altered to stop hurting their chances of receiving they help they need.

Statistics shared by the United Way indicate about 18 percent of people in Cape Girardeau County lived below the poverty level in 2011, which is up from 14.2 percent in 2010.

eragan@semissourian.com

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