Last week, I was one of the lucky people who participated in the “Conversation on Poverty in Montgomery County” that Rebecca Wagner, Executive Director of Interfaith Works, blogged about last week.
The session that I attended was wonderful.
The room was filled with a cross-section of the Montgomery County community — concerned citizens, religious leaders, government representatives, philanthropists, advocates, direct service providers–the list goes on. And, everyone was committed to having a very serious conversation about poverty in Montgomery County.
Now, I must make a confession. Generally, I am not a big fan of facilitated meetings like this. Far too often, they consist of hours of talk that often veer off subject and lead to nothing happening.
And a year later, we have the same meeting and the same discussion again.
The conversation that Rebecca organized was just the opposite.
I participated in in-depth discussions about the challenges of bringing attention to the needs of the poor in Montgomery County when the public perception is that there isn’t much poverty in the County because it is so wealthy.
Sadly, the fact is that there are tens of thousands of people living below the federal poverty line in Montgomery County. And, because the cost of living in the County is so high, there are even more people who live there but cannot afford to support themselves and their families.
In addition, the County is very large and its population is very diverse (we tend to forget that there are still farms in Montgomery County), which poses unique obstacles to providing services that are accessible and appropriate. And, the demographic make-up of the County has been changing rapidly, which makes it hard for service-providers to keep up with the need.
The great news is that these Conversations have accomplished Interfaith Works’ goal – as a result of these convenings, other meetings are going to be held.
Most notably, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services is going to host a meeting on October 10th to discuss an agenda to address these problems. For more information about this meeting, please contact Diana Day at the County HHS.
Here at The Women’s Foundation, this conversation feeds into our work in many ways. It sets the stage for some meetings we will be holding on women and poverty later this year. It informs us of the needs in the County as we formulate our funding priorities for the next year. And, it gives us the opportunity to learn about the work being done by nonprofits that we may not have worked with yet.
All in all, the Conversation on Poverty was a true success.
Sharon Levin is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Policy Advocacy.
