Poverty

katec@herald-mail.com There's a framed poster on the wall in Community Action Council Executive Director David G. Jordan's office: "Stand up for what is right, even if you're standing alone. " Jordan, in the position since April 1, inherited that poster. But it remains prominent. Community Action Council was founded in 1965, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War of Poverty. " "The war is still raging," Jordan says. The agency's goal has been to work itself out of a job, Jordan says.

pepperb@herald-mail.com With 32 percent of its students considered poor, Washington County Public Schools has offered training sessions for its teachers, counselors and aides in its poorest schools to help them understand how poverty affects children. Using "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Ruby K. Payne, a 31-year education veteran with an expertise in cultural poverty, Carol Corwell-Martin, the school system's school improvement coordinator and Title I school support specialist, and Scott Woods, principal of Clear Spring Elementary School, have talked with people working in the county's 10 Title I schools and at four other locations about the behaviors associated with poverty and how teachers can recognize them and help the students to succeed.

Sidney Poitier recounts roots in poverty, soothsayer's prophecy By DON AINES / Staff Writer SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - The Bahamian ambassador to Japan regaled students, faculty and guests at Shippensburg University Thursday night, but had relatively little to say about his other career as an Oscar-winning actor. continued "The man that I am was being built from inside the boy that I was," Sidney Poitier said of his life growing up on Cat Island, the youngest of seven children born to tomato farmer Reginald Poitier and his wife Evelyn.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - West Virginia is giving an extra $50 to students who might be unable to afford clothing for school. The state has increased the school clothing allowance to $150 for students born between Sept. 1, 1980, and Aug. 31, 1994, and whose family income is at or below the federal poverty level, according to the state Department of Health and Human Resources. One of only two state-funded school clothing voucher programs in the country, the West Virginia program gives students money to buy items like pants, shirts, dresses and sewing materials.

Poverty needs specific solutions To the editor: Charley Reese's column on poverty and response is very good, only it doesn't go far enough. There are too many generalities and too few specifics. Complex problems cannot be solved with generalities. There are at least five major causes of poverty, with many sub-causes and each requires different solutions. The major causes: 1. Pockets of poverty, where people grow up and live all of their lives and can't get out of it because the local culture is built around it. A century or more in this pocket builds a malaise of "birds of a feather" from which there is a reluctance to depart.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Putting your best foot forward is something everyone hopes to do, especially when looking for a new job. Women living in poverty don't get new shoes very often, and sometimes are frustrated or embarrassed that they don't have good-looking shoes for interviews or meetings. They buy new shoes for growing children or for husbands who need work shoes. But they rarely go out to buy them for themselves, unless they are required for work, or they've broken or worn out the shoes they've worn every day for months.

Rising poverty is a major challenge facing Fiji, where more than 250,000 people, or no less than 30 percent of its population, are living in great hardship which the government and service organizations like Rotary are working hard to eradicate. The comment was made by Fiji's ambassador to the United States, Jesoni Vitusagavulu, on Oct. 25 while he addressed a Rotary club meeting in Hagerstown. The Rotary Club of Hagerstown, which has a membership of 150 mainly business executives, invited him as guest speaker.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Forty students at Greencastle-Antrim High School have been working since December to help those in impoverished nations in West Africa, as well as those in need in their own community. The students are a part of the O Ambassadors club, a joint program of Oprah's Angel Network and Free The Children, according to a press release from Greencastle-Antrim High School. "They are part of a network of O Ambassadors clubs across North America that are working to find solutions to global challenges through active learning, idea sharing and taking action," the press release said.

Nothing brought to mind more about the suffering that children who grow up poor and destitute endure than the testimony of a young woman Saturday at a forum organized to combat child poverty. Kristi Cotter, 23, of Bunker Hill, W.Va., in an emotional recounting of her life story that brought tears to some audience members, told of resorting to stealing, drug abuse and even prostitution. She grew up with uncaring parents, without roots, love and guidance in dirt-poor surroundings. The forum, one of 12 held across West Virginia, was sponsored by the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Family Coalition.

In a very animated speech given in early May of 2012, Glenn Beck, a conservative political analyst, made a plea for people to work their way through intellectual puzzles by “relying on the message we get from the gut.” If this was a lone opinion, we could dismiss it and consider the source. However, it appears in popular usage enough to be a concern to those with some respect for reason. “Thinking with our gut” is a course of action for lazy minds waiting for an accident to happen.

The South Central Community Action Programs invites the public to find out what it is like to be poor and living in the United States at a poverty simulation exercise to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, at Wilson College, 1015 Philadelphia Ave. The program, called Living on the Edge, will be held in Sarah’s Coffeehouse on the lower level of Lenfest Commons. The exercise will be facilitated by a community organization called Circles, a community initiative led by SCCAP.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people living in poverty has climbed to 14.3 percent of Americans, with the ranks of working-age poor reaching the highest level since at least 1965. The Census Bureau says that about 43.6 million people, or 1 in 7, were in poverty last year. That's up from 39.8 million, or 13.2 percent, in 2008. The number of people lacking health insurance rose from 46.3 million to 50.7 million, due mostly to the loss of employer-provided health insurance during the recession.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Putting your best foot forward is something everyone hopes to do, especially when looking for a new job. Women living in poverty don't get new shoes very often, and sometimes are frustrated or embarrassed that they don't have good-looking shoes for interviews or meetings. They buy new shoes for growing children or for husbands who need work shoes. But they rarely go out to buy them for themselves, unless they are required for work, or they've broken or worn out the shoes they've worn every day for months.

So you've stocked your closet with designer clothes, outfitted the den with the latest electronics and remodeled the kitchen, all courtesy of the plastic express. Your raise didn't come through like the boss promised, you're behind on your credit card payments and we all know what comes next: The phone calls from the collection department. We don't like it, but we know it. That's how it works. It's part of the bargain. But this? According to the New York Times, there is a chance that when you get those calls from the collection department, they are not originating in the United States.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Forty students at Greencastle-Antrim High School have been working since December to help those in impoverished nations in West Africa, as well as those in need in their own community. The students are a part of the O Ambassadors club, a joint program of Oprah's Angel Network and Free The Children, according to a press release from Greencastle-Antrim High School. "They are part of a network of O Ambassadors clubs across North America that are working to find solutions to global challenges through active learning, idea sharing and taking action," the press release said.

Dale Bannon might have left his job as local United Way director for a job at the Washington County Public Schools, but he hasn't abandoned his commitment to reducing the local poverty rate. Bannon, now director of system development for the school system, took his message to members of the Women's Giving Circle on Wednesday at the Fountain Head Country Club. WGC members began meeting in June 2003 out of concern that while there were groups helping women here, there wasn't enough focus on creating long-term solutions to the problems they face.

WASHINGTON COUNTY-The money she made working three part-time jobs as a crossing guard, lunch aide and evening cook barely enabled single mother Cherry Hiser to pay the rent. She was caught in a cycle of work and poverty that continued for five years before the Hagerstown woman found Habitat for Humanity of Washington County Inc., which built her a home three years ago and helped lay the foundation for her new life. "Being a single mother and being able to afford to pay for a place to live ... It's an exciting feeling because you know you're working every day for a reason," said Hiser, who now works full time as an assembler to make the monthly no-interest mortgage payments to Habitat.

Rising poverty is a major challenge facing Fiji, where more than 250,000 people, or no less than 30 percent of its population, are living in great hardship which the government and service organizations like Rotary are working hard to eradicate. The comment was made by Fiji's ambassador to the United States, Jesoni Vitusagavulu, on Oct. 25 while he addressed a Rotary club meeting in Hagerstown. The Rotary Club of Hagerstown, which has a membership of 150 mainly business executives, invited him as guest speaker.