I have read most of Jonathan Kozol’s "The Shame of the Nation," and for our college summer reading assignment I’ve most recently read "The Working Poor" by David Shepler.
From what I can gather, from speaking about the cycle of poverty, the solution must be one that encompasses multiple problems at once. Because poverty is a cycle, no one event will break it, because they are all interconnected. Some of these basic issues include: poor education, poor motivation, hopelessness, (sometimes) malnutrition, early pregnancies, inexperience in the workplace, low self esteem… and the list goes on.
Some of the most successful programs that I have heard of (though few exist, from what little I hear of it) are those that coach people. In my personal opinion, the most helpful of these on a longer-term scale are those that focus on establishing an adult’s self-esteem and preparation/training for entering the workforce and maintaining a job.
Yet these programs work on very small scales — that is how they function, because the social workers and job trainers must work with a smaller group for more individualized success. Those trapped in poverty often come from a long line of failure in the family to rise above their economic status, and the same pattern continues with each generation. Low self esteem is built in from the start — that sense of hopelessness — and as this person matures into an adult, he/she lacks the right parental skills, lacks the confidence to be a role model for his/her children, lacks the sense of self-worth to prioritize attending work each day… etc.
Since poverty cycle issues are interconnected, I believe that a sense of low self esteem, if boosted in the long-term, would impact all the other problems seen in cycle.
So my question is then, how can we make these training programs more widespread?
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