Living in the war zone of poverty

By Nancy Jernigan

At least half of the 80 or so people gathered at the recent Opportunity Conference in Cape Girardeau live in a war zone. They live in the war zone of poverty here in Cape Girardeau. The other half want to help them win that war.

Nearly one in five people in Cape Girardeau County lives in poverty. "Poverty does not have to be," Dr. Donna Beegle says. "We tend to operate on scarcity. There's enough money, enough land, enough food."

Beegle is an Oregon educator who is teaching the United Way of Southeast Missouri how to help people find their way out of poverty. The Opportunity Community Model matches people in poverty with others in the community trained to navigate the services in place to help them.

People living in poverty listen to Beegle in a way they might not listen to a social worker. Years ago, she was a struggling, divorced mother of two who found a three-week program for women in transition. But the people running the program didn't stop providing help and support after three weeks, and that continuity is key to the program Beegle eventually developed.

Somebody cares, and they're not going to stop.

When she showed the group a trailer for an upcoming PBS documentary titled "Invisible Nation," tears of self-recognition fell around the room. "Emotions are good," Beegle told them. "It's when we stop feeling that we stop moving and making the strides we need."

She hopes the documentary changes thinking, "so we're actually fighting the poverty and not the people who are in it."

People in poverty are used to being judged by others who aren't. Many are ashamed of their situation.

"It's easy to look in and judge because you don't know why people do what they do," Beegle told the conference. "Know the why. Then we don't judge."

Someone in poverty might even appear not to be trying. That person is in the fetal position, Beegle says, scared and feeling alone. Start there.

A poor family with a big-screen TV might be criticized for spending money it doesn't have. Why do they do it? It's about wanting to belong, Beegle says, the same yearning that leads people to join gangs or clubs or organizations. But she cautions that trying to belong can be another way of getting stuck in poverty.

Beegle knows the poverty war zone firsthand. She grew up in a large family that survived by picking cotton and fruit and doing whatever provided food that night. She has no childhood photos. "You learn not to care about anything," she said.

She married at 15 because that's all she knew to do. Her husband couldn't read or write. Sometimes dinner was a spoonful of peanut butter. The road that eventually led to her Ph.D. involved much mentoring and many reassurances she wasn't stupid just because she said "ain't" and didn't know when to use "went" and when to say "gone."

Lack of education is one of the causes of poverty. Growing up in an impoverished family is another. Her mother never went to her parent-teacher conferences because she knew nothing about school. But the documentary shows how proud she is of her children.

The Opportunity Community Model matches people in poverty, called Neighbors, with people who have the experience and training to help guide them out. Those people are called navigators. Among the navigators attending the conference was retired banker Narvol Randol, who wants to return the blessings of his own life. The training he has been receiving has given him a new perspective on people living in poverty. "It's so difficult how to break that chain," he says.

Another Navigator is Dr. Dennis Means, a United Way board member and chief medical officer at SoutheastHEALTH. Means always has cared for patients regardless of their ability to pay. His grandparents were sharecroppers, and his parents were working poor during his early childhood. "But we had a strong family and a strong neighborhood," he said.

Hannah Cox brought her 11/2-year-old daughter Hayden to the conference. Cox is working toward an LPN degree at the Career and Technology Center. She knows she needs a navigator's help. "I've been there on the wrong path," she says. "It's almost harder to not go down that road."

Hannah was just fired from her job for studying while at work. She and her daughter have lived without electricity for weeks at a time. She has no vehicle and lost her driver's license for driving without insurance.

Beegle herself drove illegally for 14 years. Poverty sometimes forces people into corners navigators may be able to help them escape.

Hannah is 23. "Seeing other people like me is inspiring," she says. "It's nice to know I'm not the only one out there."

Another Neighbor is Marquies Boyd, who just spent six years in federal prison. Marquies dropped out of school in the seventh grade. He is 29 and only had one job in his life. He wants to buy and restore houses someday. But first must come a GED.

"It's about getting back up and trying," he says.

Poverty is freighted with many myths. For instance, the belief that hard work results in a good living. Two-thirds of people in poverty are working 1.7 jobs.

Another myth: If you didn't do well in school, you can't succeed. People learn in different ways. Beegle offers Albert Einstein's view of education: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Myth: I don't need help from anyone. "Everyone who makes it has had help," she assured. Can any of us who are not living in poverty claim otherwise?

Myth: I don't tell people about my struggle. People want to help, Beegle says, but they can't help if they don't know.

"All the things people say about poverty are about poverty, not about you," Beegle told the Neighbors.

Donna Beegle is a hero. She came here to say that people who have to fight and scratch every day to keep their electricity on and a place to sleep and to feed their families are heroic, too.

Nancy Jernigan is the executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri.