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Group invites community leaders to learn about poverty

BELOIT — “Together we can.”

That was the slogan for a meeting Thursday of about 80 business leaders, government officials and poverty advocates gathered to learn about the Vision 2020 campaign, a statewide initiative to end childhood poverty taking root in Rock County.

The campaign invited leaders from all sectors of society to the Beloit Rotary River Center with two promises: free breakfast and no donation requests.

Organizers hoped to educate people not normally involved in the fight against poverty, said Connie Robers, an executive committee member.

“The service community already has some sense of this, so we plan to do something to involve them at a broader level down the line,” she said. “This stage was really to try to hook into people who may not have this on their front burner right now.”

The campaign—an effort of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Wisconsin Head Start and the Wisconsin Community Action Program—argues Rock County should put childhood poverty on the front burner. Fifteen percent of Rock County children lived in poverty in 2006, according to the U.S. Census. Thousands of families live without adequate health care, education, housing and family-supporting jobs.

But the campaign doesn’t focus on the negative, according to an introductory film shown at the meeting. The film and speakers emphasized success stories and action.

Organizers laid out a plan based on “Project Promise,” an awareness-raising initiative in the Fox Cities that organizers hailed as a success. Future activities could include:

-- Poverty simulations.

-- A community book read. Libraries in the Fox Cities hosted discussions about “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” by Barbara Ehrenreich.

-- Diversity circles that discuss issues of race and poverty, such as the ones hosted by the Rock County Diversity Action Team.

The diversity circles excited Mark Dax, principal of McNeel Middle School in Beloit.

“You have race issues that are out there, and those are directly connected to poverty,” he said. “The community needs to have an open dialogue about that.”

But Jim Olson, a Beloit businessman, said he’s heard this all before. He described himself as a “foot soldier” from Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960s.

“All these programs have been tried before, and the intentions are certainly admirable, but the results are disastrous,” he said.

Olson said the government has to stimulate the economy and create more jobs to eliminate poverty.

“All I’ve heard today is let’s get together and have more government programs, and we’ve got enough government programs,” he said. “We just need more jobs.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Marc Perry, a member of Vision 2020’s executive committee, said he was impressed by Thursday’s turnout.

But the campaign can’t rest on one successful meeting, he said.

“We don’t want to lose the focus, especially with an initiative like this that pulls from so many different groups and aspects of society,” he said. “We have to get people engaged and get them connected right away.”

Organizers asked meeting attendees to fill out a card indicating their support for the campaign. Attendees could choose one of three levels:

-- Support and advocacy.

-- Participation in future activities, such as a community book read, poverty simulations and diversity circles.

-- Service on the executive committee.

People who didn’t attend Thursday’s meeting still can join the initiative. To learn more, visit www.2020wi.org or contact Perry at (608) 755-2279 or mperry@community-action.org.