We Can Do This Together

I was sitting in a administrative meeting at the school where I work, listening to the faculty and staff talk about the ramifications of a $30 million shortfall in the AISD budget next year.  Of course, everyone knew that drastic cuts were coming and that hundreds of jobs might be lost.  It wasn't a very upbeat meeting.  I sat there thinking how it's tough enough to face all the challenges of a Title I school (significant number of at-risk, low-income students) without losing so many of the resources necessary to be successful. That it's tough enough to succeed in a district with no Title I schools, but so much more difficult in a district with several.

One of the lessons to be learned is that no urban school district can provide all the funding necessary to accomplish their mission.  It will require even more collaboration with local partners, including nonprofit organizations like ours (Urban Connection Austin). Which is why our proposal to the district next Spring is to assume most of the financial responsibility for our Family Resource Center.

Over the last two years I've heard a lot of rhetoric, from individuals and churches, asserting that Christians are the logical ones to help the "working poor."  I like the sound of that.  I've always believed that Christians are the most motivated and equipped to change the world and minister to the poor.  Now it's to put our money where our mouth is.  

I believe we have the opportunity, in these difficult times, to put down roots in this community and establish relationships of trust with our neighbors if we will assume the financial responsibility for maintaining this ministry. Otherwise, I fear that it will be lost in a wave of budget cuts over the next few months.  This would be tragic, given the progress we have made in just one year and the prospect of truly "moving the needle" when it comes to helping move families from crisis to stability and self-sufficiency.

Over the next few months you will hear more about our campaign to raise the funds necessary to preserve and secure this important work.  We will be appealing primarily to a broad base of those that can give $25, $50, or $100/month.  Many faith-based organizations like ours depend primarily on large donations, but our mainstay has always been those individuals that believe in what we're doing and continue to support us on a monthly basis.  If we are to secure the trust of Austin ISD, we must prove ourselves trustworthy.  I hope you will join us.

Resources Without Relationships

In a blog entry from a few days ago ("It's Getting Worse"), I observed that resources, without relationships, are invariably wasted.  Now, allow me to come back to that.  I spent this last summer delivering lunches to hungry kids in five multi-family complexes (four apartment complexes and a trailer park).  I would prepare the order for the day (usually about 100 + lunches), load them on a catering truck and deliver them to these sites.  But that wasn't the half of it.  Meeting me at those sites was a group of young people that had set up tarps and blankets and were playing with the kids, using all sorts of sports equipment, coloring books, bubbles and other assorted forms of entertainment.  The kids loved it and joined in enthusiastically, often joined by their parents.

Looking around one day I realized that feeding these kids wasn't the most important thing we were doing that summer.  We were also creating community among the families and kids that attended, a network of relationships that has continued into the school year.  (All of these sites were within a mile or two of our Family Resource Center at J. Frank Dobie Middle School.)  After the summer was over, I had a chance to meet with some of the parents that attended with their children to ask them their opinions about our service.  That was a humbling experience, especially as I asked them what we could do to improve that service (what were our mistakes).  They pointed out several until one of the parents innocently inquired why I didn't ask them what they needed or wanted.  And, more importantly, why I had not asked them to help.  I hadn't even thought of that.

That's often the case with many things we try to do in low-income neighborhoods.  We just assume what's best and appropriate for the people we're trying to serve without ever taking the time to ask for their input.  Later, we complain if participation in our program is low without ever "connecting the dots."  We treat our neighbors as clients that we're serving and regard ourselves as messiahs instead of neighbors.  You see, neighbors usually don't do for others what they can do for themselves and they usually ask, "What can I do to help you?" before they do.  Messiahs, armed with briefcases full of research, assume they already know.

Is it any surprise then that so many well-laid plans and programs come up short and fail to accomplish their lofty goals?  And the number one reason for that is quite simple - a lack of engagement, especially with parents.  Maybe it's because we talk instead of listen and, even when we do research, it usually doesn't include the opinions and experience of those we're determined to help.  We continue to make plans and write proposals requesting funding without spending the necessary time and effort to build relationships with those we're trying to serve.  The truth is, we can't lift people out of poverty.  We're not messiahs.  But we can become good neighbors that come alongside folks that are struggling to help empower and encourage them, connecting them to the resources and opportunities that will lift them out of poverty.  Because the greatest resource we can ever offer our neighbors is each other.  With trusting relationships, resources can be properly utilized.  Without those relationships, resources are invariably wasted.  Apply this principle to the charities you support and see if it doesn't hold true.

Try A Mango!

For all of us that are angered by the entire predatory lending industry (e.g. payday loan establishments) and for all those that are their victims, now there's a creative alternative.  Try a mango! It's the name of a new, innovative, but simplified method of banking that just opened in South Austin.  Check out the "no frills" approach to banking that keeps their fees to a minimum and encourages people to save their money for that inevitable "rainy day."  You can even do your banking on your mobile phone.  This is amazing.  Check it out!

What Would Jesus Do?

"At the end of the day, it is important to remember that while the institutional church is important to us, Jesus appeared to give it little thought.  Though the church eventually became the means by which the story and witness of Jesus spread, neither its genesis nor continuance seemed a priority to him.  Time after time, meeting human needs took center stage in his life and ministry.  Indeed, when Jesus did speak of institutional religion, he was often scathing, saying at one point that those who were religiously pure on the outside were inwardly deceitful and rapacious (Matthew 23:25).  This serves as a caution to those of us who have convinced ourselves that the goal of the church is institutional purity.  To be a follower of Jesus is to choose, at every ethical crossroads, to serve people above structures."

Philip Gulley, If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus

It's Getting Worse

Three years ago the government reported that there were over 36 million households in America that were "food insecure."  Now that number as increased to over 49 million households, increasing by a third in just three years.  It's clear that we're moving very quickly in the wrong direction and nearly everyone that deals with this problem on a daily basis believes it's just going to get worse in a bad economy like this one.  We all know that the majority of the major cuts in the next year won't be made in defense spending or eliminating tax cuts.  They will come in social programs that help those that are struggling in poverty.  We need to ask ourselves, what if this trend continues? What if it grows larger, as it surely will, especially when benefits are cut?

What should be our response?  First, we need to recognize that the answer isn't just spending more money, but a better plan, a more economical and comprehensive plan.  We need a plan that marshals both human and monetary resources to combat hunger.  We need a plan that cuts out much of the bureaucratic and ineffective administration of these programs and eliminates fraud.  We need a plan that offers greater incentives to the private sector to collaborate with the government to feed hungry children.

Second, the sacrifice must start from the top down instead from the bottom up.  It's like that simple admonition that many of us have heard and not enough of us practice - live simply so that others can simply live.  Even the richest people in America, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, recognize the biblical wisdom that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Whether that generosity is the willingness to pay more taxes, as Warren Buffett has embraced and endorsed, or to work with the government and other organizations to address this growing problem, this demands an "all hands on deck" approach.

Finally, the most effective way to solve this problem is to develop relationships with those we are trying to help.  We cannot lift people out of poverty.  We must offer them opportunities to help themselves.  It is true that many reasons for poverty are self-inflicted wounds, bad habits that frustrate financial prosperity.  The problem is that simply pointing that out is the single most ineffective response.  What is required is a relationship with those we're trying to help.  In fact, my limited experience suggests that resources, without relationships, are invariably wasted and often make matters worse (more on that later).  It may well be that this is the greatest source of waste in all of our efforts to help and it will continue until we change our strategy.

When we look at programs, like the summer food service program (SFSP), that serves lunches to kids from low-income families, and wonder why the participation rate in Texas is below 10%, perhaps we should try something different.  How about asking some of those families?  Perhaps the program, as presently structured, no longer serves the need or there are too many barriers to participation or there aren't enough incentives for the private sector to help.  Maybe instead of trying to be messiahs, we need to simply be neighbors and ask for their help.  The truth is, it's all of that and more, but when the conversation is limited to bureaucrats and administrators we will continue to wonder what's wrong with very little hope of ever discovering what it is.  (When I sit in those meetings I'm continually reminded of the philosopher George Santayana's definition of a fanatic as someone that redoubles their effort when they have forgotten their aim.)

The gap is growing wider and things are growing steadily worse.  It's insane to keep doing things the way we always have, but expect different results.  There are solutions to these problems, but it will demand engagement with a much broader group of people, including those we claim to care about and serve.  Millions of hungry children are waiting for us to act.

Showing Up

When I first began as the Executive Director of Urban Connection Austin, it was a pretty modest start.  Like a missionary in a foreign culture, I spent all of my time just showing up and listening to individuals and groups.  Against all of my impatience to just "do something," my boss, Larry James of City Square (formerly Central Dallas Ministries), kept assuring me that there are no bad meetings and to just keep showing up.  I started in the 78758 zip code where we live and specifically in the Northgate neighborhood that most folks had written off as too far gone to reclaim.  I talked to apartment residents, local ministers, Parent Support Specialists, and principals, just to name a few.  With each one I asked, "How can I help?" and nearly everyone gave me something to do, from distributing flyers to carrying groceries and taking people to the clinic.

Then I got an invitation to join a distinguished group of natural community organizers and create a Family Resource Center at J. Frank Dobie Middle School in the 78753 zip code (north of the St. John's neighborhood and east of the one where I had been working).  Soon I had the opportunity to call meetings as well as attend them.  And little by little I've seen the value of just showing up.  It seems like every day that I encounter someone I met at those early meetings and with each one another part of the big picture seems to fall into place.

I thought of that today when I got a call from someone at a city-wide educational organization about some plans they're working on in the neighborhood where I began - the 78758 zip code.  He said I was recommended by one of those Parent Support Specialists I had encountered and offered my help.  I must admit I was a little surprised by the recommendation because I really don't think I did much for her. But she remembered me and recommended me.  That's all that counts.  That's the nature of such grassroots community development - one person meeting with another person and then another and another until the sheer force of such numbers begins to "move the needle." Who knows what collaborations will result from such meetings?  I'm glad I showed up.

Immigration Reform Now

Yesterday, I spent much of my day helping a young man file papers to enroll his 13 year-old nephew in school.  We're still working on it today.  This young man's brother and sister-in-law, the parents of his nephew, were swiftly arrested and deported a few weeks ago, leaving their son to fend for himself.  Fortunately, the boy had family here in Austin that could assume responsibility for him - his 20 year-old uncle.  It seems hard to believe that the agents who arrested this couple didn't make provisions for this boy.  I would have found it hard to believe except I've see and heard similar stories before.

I say all of this because I'm sure the agents acted well within the law.  What they did was perfectly legal, but was it morally right?  These are the kinds of issues that we must all face as a nation.  This problem is not going away and our present approach has failed miserably.  Yesterday was a reminder both of our failure and our promise.  Failure, because this young boy's parents were deported without any regard for their young son. Promise, because there were people like me and others that are willing to help this family care for their abandoned son.  A perfect snapshot of our immigration dilemma.

Immigration reform is just one of many major problems that Congress and our President must address in the months and years to come.  But face it they must.  Failure to do so will only accelerate the suffering in the Hispanic community and continue to block the economic boom it can create if we can move past our legalistic perspective and do what is true to our history (we are a nation of immigrants) and benefits all.

P. S.  If you want to get a better perspective on the human effects of our present immigration system, check out the movie, The Visitor.  Then tell me what you think.