Columbia’s War on Poverty: Together, we can end sustained poverty
Looking back over the eight months or so since I have been writing this column, it has been a powerful experience. So much of my life is completely focused on trying to help our neighbors facing poverty, it has been valuable to take this time to really think about them and the world in which they live.
This is my final column, as I transition to a new position in a new town, and my successor here at The Salvation Army will be writing about Columbia’s War on Poverty. Let’s take this opportunity to think about where we have been together over these past months; and where should Columbia go?
Obviously, the problem of local poverty is massive and complicated. There are so many pieces of it and it is so easy to get bogged down in just solving day-to-day problems, which we often do. Yes, poverty is a massive problem, a hard problem, but it is also one that can be solved. Together, we can beat poverty in Columbia, Missouri.
Now, you have to remember from past columns that I am not saying that poverty can be totally erased. Poverty will always be with us. Things happen, ya know?
What I am saying is that we can beat sustained poverty. We can build safety nets sufficient to catch us when we fall, and we can provide a path and resources to rise out of poverty. We really can.
How do we do that? Columbia has the individual pieces to the puzzle, it just needs to fit them together into a complete picture. Honestly, our nonprofits, government agencies, churches, business community and even individuals are doing amazing work. We even coordinate at various points (better than I have seen in many communities, honestly).
But what if we all truly worked together in a day-to-day way, following a cohesive plan with the stated goal of ending sustained poverty? That is what we need. That is what would make the difference.
Now is the time for someone to step up, to provide a clear vision that can bring us all together and give us a path forward. Someone needs to coordinate the whole, and we need to move forward together, empowering that leadership, doing the work.
The list of issues that will need to be addressed in such a plan is long. At a minimum, we must ask ourselves what people need to survive, and then what they need to move onward and upward, giving every Columbian a pathway to hope.
Really, we know the answers for the most part. We just need to sit down, lay out the needs — ranging from food and shelter to job training and mental health services — divvy up the work, and move forward.
Together, there is nothing we cannot do. Together, with a plan and working as a unit, we can end sustained poverty in Columbia. Let’s do it.
Major Curtiss Hartley is a leader of The Salvation Army in Mid-Missouri, with facilities in Columbia and Jefferson City. The Salvation Army provides a wide range of community services to address poverty and other issues, seeking to rebuild lives and create lasting change.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia’s War on Poverty: Together, we can end sustained poverty
