Study of the cycle by Donna Beegle, a Tigard, Ore., consultant on poverty issues who emerged from intergenerational poverty herself.
What is the poverty line?
The government definition of poverty is lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health.
The U.S. Census Bureau annually sets “poverty thresholds” for numerous family types and situations, based on income and the consumer price index; this defines who is and isn’t living in poverty and is largely a statistical yardstick. The threshold does not account for geographic variations.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sets simplified “poverty guidelines,” which are used for administrative purposes — like eligibility for government benefits.
Poverty line as a function of family size in Clark County, 2014 guidelines
1 person: $11,490
2 people: 15,510
3 people: 19,530
4 people: 23,550
5 people: 27,570
6 people: 31,590
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Grants spread to multiple local agencies
The Community Foundation for Southwest Washington recently won a $700,000 Gates Foundation grant across four years in an innovative effort to interrupt the cycle of “intergenerational poverty” and reorient young people and families toward success. The Community Foundation also bundled its own discretionary funds into larger-than-usual chunks and granted it to local organizations working on the same problem.
The first round of grantees in this initiative:
o Support for Early Learning and Families (SELF): $119,000 from the Gates Foundation for planning a comprehensive Clark County strategy to attack intergenerational poverty.
o Lower Columbia College Head Start, Cowlitz County: $29,000 from Gates for direct early childhood education.
o Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools: $27,500 for family resource centers at 11 schools.
o Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest: $25,000 for high school dropout prevention.
Study of the cycle by Donna Beegle, a Tigard, Ore., consultant on poverty issues who emerged from intergenerational poverty herself.
o Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington: $25,000 for programs at Fruit Valley and Washington elementary schools.
o Children’s Center: $25,000 for mental health case manager at Mountain View High School.
o Partners in Careers: $25,000 for employment training for high school seniors.
o Share Vancouver: $25,000 for hunger response programs.
o Sea Mar Community Health Center: $21,000 for infant case management for at-risk families.
o Second Step Housing: $23,723 for Nurturing Parent Program for at-risk families.
o Bridgeview Housing (Vancouver Housing Authority): $11,300 for early education advocacy for children in subsidized housing.
The total is $356,000 — so far. Jennifer Rhoads, president of the Community Foundation, said the agency is just tearing into grant applications for the second round.
“We are talking about long-term systems change,” Rhoads said. “We’re not going to disrupt the cycle of poverty immediately. We may not have measurable results for years. The Gates people, they’re patient.”
Onika Estrada has a few ambitions: doctor, lawyer, movie director, author. Or maybe just president of the United States. Her younger brother, Elias, has his sights firmly set on playing pro baseball.
The Estrada kids, ages 10 and 9, respectively, might just make it all the way to those big dreams. You never can tell.
Or can you? Maybe the deck is so stacked against the Estradas that they’ll always stay more or less in place. That means living in Rose Village, where they attend one of Vancouver’ statistically lowest-achieving elementary schools. Average income is low and the crime rate is high. Many families speak Spanish at home. The kids’ father, Miguel, is a native of Mexico who came to this country illegally but now works above board as a laborer and construction worker. He is making slow progress up the pay ladder — and using unpaid winter downtime to build his skills and improve his written English. Mother Crystal is a caretaker for elderly people. She’d like to finish her associate degree at Clark College, but she’s too busy working and mothering at the moment.
“We’re living paycheck to paycheck right now,” Crystal said. “We moved to this area because it was a good deal. It wasn’t really by choice.”
Take another look at the Estradas, who appear to be doing everything they can to get ahead. Miguel, when he’s working, earns $18 an hour as a laborer and construction worker. He’s hoping to double that at some point through training and education; meanwhile he’s sometimes wistful about the mellower life he left behind in Mexico. “You can have everything here, but you have to work very hard,” he said.
Crystal, who has been working the same care-taking job since 2001, earns only $13.21 per hour. Some of that hard-earned money has already paid for a stress-management class, she said.
Take another look at Michael-Schroeder and Wheeler. Both had to step away from work due to family upheaval and children with special needs. That’s how they both landed in subsidized housing, they said. Before that, Wheeler was an assistant at Franklin Elementary School and Michael-Schroeder ran a shelter for homeless families.
Michael-Schroeder bristled at the suggestion that low-income people don’t understand the value of education. When they were making those cold calls to VHA families, she said, the reaction was mostly “delighted;” occasionally there was anger and frustration at schools and school systems. Sometimes the calls resulted in children attempting to translate the message into Spanish or Russian for their parents.
“Poor people are not lazy. Poor people want to work. You’re talking about people who are emotionally and financially strapped,” she said. “A middle-class family has more resources to cope. For lower-income people, the barriers are so much higher.”
What is the poverty line?
The government definition of poverty is lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health.
The U.S. Census Bureau annually sets "poverty thresholds" for numerous family types and situations, based on income and the consumer price index; this defines who is and isn't living in poverty and is largely a statistical yardstick. The threshold does not account for geographic variations.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sets simplified "poverty guidelines," which are used for administrative purposes -- like eligibility for government benefits.
Poverty line as a function of family size in Clark County, 2014 guidelines
1 person: $11,490
2 people: 15,510
3 people: 19,530
4 people: 23,550
5 people: 27,570
6 people: 31,590
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Grants spread to multiple local agencies
The Community Foundation for Southwest Washington recently won a $700,000 Gates Foundation grant across four years in an innovative effort to interrupt the cycle of "intergenerational poverty" and reorient young people and families toward success. The Community Foundation also bundled its own discretionary funds into larger-than-usual chunks and granted it to local organizations working on the same problem.
The first round of grantees in this initiative:
o Support for Early Learning and Families (SELF): $119,000 from the Gates Foundation for planning a comprehensive Clark County strategy to attack intergenerational poverty.
o Lower Columbia College Head Start, Cowlitz County: $29,000 from Gates for direct early childhood education.
o Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools: $27,500 for family resource centers at 11 schools.
o Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest: $25,000 for high school dropout prevention.
o Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington: $25,000 for programs at Fruit Valley and Washington elementary schools.
o Children's Center: $25,000 for mental health case manager at Mountain View High School.
o Partners in Careers: $25,000 for employment training for high school seniors.
o Share Vancouver: $25,000 for hunger response programs.
o Sea Mar Community Health Center: $21,000 for infant case management for at-risk families.
o Second Step Housing: $23,723 for Nurturing Parent Program for at-risk families.
o Bridgeview Housing (Vancouver Housing Authority): $11,300 for early education advocacy for children in subsidized housing.
The total is $356,000 -- so far. Jennifer Rhoads, president of the Community Foundation, said the agency is just tearing into grant applications for the second round.
"We are talking about long-term systems change," Rhoads said. "We're not going to disrupt the cycle of poverty immediately. We may not have measurable results for years. The Gates people, they're patient."
VHA’s Linn said: “We know why education is important. Everybody knows why education is important. There’s lots of information about why. But there isn’t a lot of information about how.”
“If I had had contact with people like us, back then, I would be so much further along now,” said Wheeler. “At the time, I was stumped.”