Shepherd Community Center is located in the heart of East Indy. The immediate neighborhood they serve is a food desert meaning the only restaurants are individually owned and the only places to buy food are convenience stores with increased prices for all products. The neighborhood is also a job desert meaning that the only jobs available in the area are at family owned stores and restaurants or one of the several auto-repair shops off the main road. Most people do not have access to good-quality, nutritious food or a nearby, decent paying job.
The neighborhood also faces a crisis surrounding prostitution and narcotics. Around 60% of the homes in the area are abandoned which makes them the perfect locations for drug deals to occur or for drugs to be produced. Additionally, the several apartment complexes in the neighborhood are better described as brothels due to the large rates of prostitution that occur within their walls.
In the middle of all of this is a large population of children, and this population is where Shepherd focuses its efforts.
These children are victims of a vicious cycle known as generational poverty. A family stuck in the cycle of poverty can often track its roots back three or more generations, and if no intervention occurs, it can be predicted to occur in three or more generations in the future as well. Each new child born into a family living in the system of generational poverty is a victim of the system that grows up not knowing life could look any differently.
Shepherd focuses in on this population through education, and they offer classes for preschool through fifth grade at their Community Center as well as after-school activities that are offered through high school. At school, all children are provided breakfast and lunch -- for many the only two meals they will eat that day -- and after-school participants receive a snack as well. The students receive a Christian education as Shepherd is a faith-based organization. The teachers and staff believe that the best way to reach these students is to meet their needs at every type of poverty they face.
Every type of poverty.
As my team served with Shepherd, we had a chance to sit down and learn more about poverty on an academic level to help us make sense of the experiences we were having and the people we were meeting. One thing we talked in depth about was the fact that poverty is not a one-faceted problem. I cannot go to someone living in East Indianapolis, give them money and expect that all their problems will be solved. I may have momentarily solved their financial poverty, but I have done nothing to help them overcome the other types of poverty which include the following: emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, lack of support systems, lack of relationships and role models, lack of knowledge of hidden rules, lack of self-advocacy, and lack of knowledge of organizational structures.
Together, these ten types of poverty must be addressed to help a family break the generational cycle that victimizes each new child born into the family line. How this is done is not a set process, and many will argue about what works and what doesn't. What I learned most about the existence of these ten types of poverty is how deeply they shape how an individual views the world.
As a member of the middle-class, I lack little in these ten areas. Because of that, my understanding of the world is created. I am a future-minded, money-managing, educationally-focused, object-acquiring, acceptance-seeking individual. I believe if I have an education, work hard, and save my money, I can have whatever I desire in life -- and I'm always thinking in terms of that for my future.
Kia, a young woman I met at a church service at Shepherd has grown up in poverty. She currently lives in a women's shelter in a neighborhood near the Center. Her understanding of the world is quite different than mine despite the fact that we grew up less than two hours away from each other. She is a present-minded, money-spending, entertainment-seeking, fate-believing, survival-focused individual. If she earns money at work today, she now has food to eat tonight and perhaps enough money to buy more minutes for her phone or a new pair of the latest style of shoes. She is thinking in terms of surviving today. Tomorrow is when she will think about tomorrow.
As I have wrestled with these truths, it's been difficult to come to terms with the fact that because I was born into my family in the community I was raised in, my understanding of how the world works and what role I play in it has been set. And the same holds true for individuals in East Indianapolis or the part of town I avoid driving through after dark back home. Their worldview was established for them without their consent.
In order to establish relationships across these worldview gaps, an understanding of each others' worldview must occur first. Until I recognize why I respond differently in a situation than does my new friend Kia, we will never be able to bridge the gap and work together as is necessary for reconciliation. And until I can understand how a parent views the world he is raising his child in, my attempts to educate that child from my worldview will fail. Understanding is the key to change.
The following links are resources that were provided to us during our conversations at Shepherd Community Center regarding poverty. The first offers a series of quizzes that ask you whether you could survive in poverty, middle-class, or wealth as well as if you could be married to someone from one of these backgrounds. The second is a chart that goes into more details of some of the characteristics of each social class and how they view the world. Feel free to look at them if you're interested in a closer look as some of what I've touched on above.
This is the beginning of a much larger conversation I hope to have regarding social classes, reconciliation, and poverty alleviation. If you have thoughts, questions, or resources to contribute to this conversation, please don't hesitate to share them. I don't pretend to have all (or any) of the answers to these issues and would love to be in conversation with others who desire to understand with fresh eyes.
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