We, as AmeriCorps members strive daily to serve our communities in the best way possible. Recently Carol Porter, our Administrative Staff, pitched the idea of starting a book club; and as thrilled as many of us were, the idea started as merely a thought on a scratch piece of paper. However, in the past few weeks I have never experienced anything quite as amazing as people who are serious about servitude and even more so about understanding the people they serve through literature. The book we are working through is called The Framework of Understanding Poverty. We are AmeriCorps members serving under the Partnership to End Homelessness, so what we expect to gain is an understanding of what hidden factors have contributed to our clients’ current situations; or the obstacles they encountered that effected their ability to alter their circumstance.

Our first meeting occurred Thursday June 20 where we discussed the first 3 chapters. They seemed to have laid out the blueprint for understanding different types of poverty, how people fall into the category and the different languages people speak which create barriers that affect their ability to progress.

What we discovered was, though some of the information may have been slightly outdated, we all had some kind of ‘Ah Ha’ moment about how money is the underlining factor to the demise of people, how prison is an industry that calculates the number of beds they need according the 3^rd graders test scores targeting minorities and how poverty is not about financial resources alone but resources period. What one has access to and their capacity to use it to better themselves.

It is so interesting how we presume things about others. How we draw conclusions about what we think someone is going through or what we think they are facing and how we would have done something different to resolve it. But what we realize in the book so far is that everyone is not exposed to the same resources or opportunity, and frankly it is the lack of exposure to something greater or happier or beautiful that leave people deprived of knowing their options. If one does not believe there is more why would another presume they would reach for it? Poverty is not merely financial, it is mental; it is deeper than not having the resources to pay for rent or keep gas in the car, if they have one. Poverty is thinking ones condition is permanent and even if the money comes it wouldn't matter because ones thoughts have not have changed.

Our mission now as newly enlightened AmeriCorps members is to realize that our clients need more than the assistance they request, they need to be willing and ready to change their thinking. What we are now charged with is using the information as a tool to reach and demolish barriers of being misunderstood and knowing how to manage a productive conversation with our clients. Then, and only then we will be able to acquire what we truly want all of them to have, freedom!

By Renay