Ending the cycle discussed in Poverty 101

A representative of an anti-poverty firm from Oregon came to Havre Friday and provided a one-day workshop discussing the language and barriers poverty entails.

"There are a lot of myths about poverty and the people who live in it that get in the way of breaking barriers," Poverty 101 workshop speaker Donna M. Beegle said in an interview after the workshop. "Communities must come together to address the housing affordability crisis, the transportation crisis, the child care crisis, hunger, lack of access to preventative health care, treatment services, and ensure that all schools are good schools. We should not have schools where middle-class people would not take their children. The question of 'where are the good schools' should not be OK. We also have to address living-wage jobs."

Beegle said those are a few of the barriers that prevent people from developing their potential and giving back to their communities.

Beegle, who has a doctorate in educational leadership, is president of Communication Across Barriers, a consulting firm working to break the cycle of poverty in America.

Many different types of poverty exist, such as generational, working class, immigrant and situational, she added.

"When we separate the people from the poverty, our communities can address the root causes and create communities where everyone thrives," she said. "When communities have a foundation for understanding poverty and its impacts, we can come together and ensure that people can move out and stay out of the crisis of poverty. When communities have a foundation for understanding poverty and its impacts, we can come together and ensure that people can move out and stay out of the crisis of poverty. "

Hill County Superintendent Marie Deegan said she took away something from the workshop both personally and professionally.

"If you judge, you can't connect; then, if you can't connect, you can't communicate. If you can't communicate then you can't do your job, and there's a lot of times I probably judged when I shouldn't have," she said. "In a community that has 23 percent poverty, there is a need - there is a definite need."

CASA of Hill County  Executive Director Chamene Plum said the presentation raised points about things people need to understand.

"My takeaway was how to maybe relate to somebody who comes out of generational poverty, because I myself did not - how to understand them and how to create a relationship with them to make them a person, and not just a person in poverty, and communicate with them," Plum said.

Beegle said characteristics of generational poverty include:

• People who are workers of the land, as opposed to owners of the land, 

• People who never knew anyone who benefited from education, never knew anyone who moved up or was respected in a job, 

• People who are highly mobile and move frequently looking for work,

• People who have high family illiteracy,

• People whose focus is on making it through the day.

Plum said within her professional field her takeaway from the conference was looking at the language that she and volunteers use when speaking with people who come in asking for help, and how not to put the blame on them.

"Make them more of a person than a situation, make it more relatable," she said. "I think that'll help tremendously working with my volunteers."

Job Service-Havre representative Bill Lanier said the workshop was eye-opening. 

"It was interesting, hearing the different types (of poverty) and discussing these things with people and all the different people that were at this, because it was amazing to see how many people from the community were here and showed me that there's a lot of people in this community that really care," he said.

He added that his biggest takeaway was to work on not judging people, but to really take the time to get to know them, especially the people who come into his workplace.

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Online: Communication Across Barriers website: https://www.combarriers.com .