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Fighting poverty in NYC
By Jeremy | July 31, 2006
The truth is, with all the gains we have made in recent years, one in five New Yorkers, or 1.7 million people, still lives in poverty. A closer look at the numbers reveals that poverty in New York disproportionately affects African-Americans and Latinos and is concentrated in several hard-pressed neighborhoods, primarily in The Bronx and Brooklyn, with poverty rates in some areas reportedly as high as 40 percent.From Time Warner Chairman & CEO Richard Parsons, co-chair with Geoffrey Canada (president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone), of the newly created, 32-member Commission for Economic Opportunity, in an Op-Ed in today's
Our approach is based on the simple - some might say self-evident - notion that the best and most lasting way out of poverty is through work. Thus, we will focus on two primary sets of initiatives: 1) making sure that it pays to work; 2) redoubling our efforts to prepare more of our people to enter the world of work.Reminds me of a passage in Bob Lupton's book, And You Call Yourself a Christian: Towards Responsible Charity:
Ancient Hebrew wisdom describes four levels of charity. The highest level is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it. The next ... is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided. The third ... is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The lowest ... is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor. Perhaps the deepest poverty of all is to have nothing of value to offer in exchange. Charity that fosters such poverty must be challenged. We know from 40 years of failed social policy that welfare depletes self-esteem while honorable work produces dignity. We know that reciprocity builds mutual respect while one-way giving brews contempt. ... 'Your work is your calling,' declared the reformer Luther. Does not the role of the church in our day include enabling the poor to find their calling?
Topics: books, community, compassion, economics, giving, new york, poverty, quote, urban | No Comments »
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