Humanity House
Last week we learned about the cliff and how it can keep people, especially those with children, in poverty. There is a solution to the cliff. It would be a great start to have the minimum wage raised to a livable wage, but barring that there is still a solution.
Lets take Marys case once again, only this time Mary finds employment and begins working. She does not lose her benefits. Instead she is helped with childcare and keeps her SNAP benefits and housing allowance at the same level as when she was unemployed.
To keep these benefits coming in for the next six months, Mary is required to attend workshops that cover money management, adult education and employment workshops. She is given opportunities to seek out alternative sources for childcare in case of emergencies. At the end of those six months, Marys benefits are cut by one-sixth. She continues with weekly workshops that now give Mary information on how to enroll in college part-time and what to expect. She is given family counseling to deal with any stress that comes with moving out of poverty and into the real world. Each month for the next five months Marys benefits are cut by one-sixth until after a year she is completely off of government assistance.
Supporting people who are living in poverty, not just with food and rent assistance but with education and a gradual decline in benefits over a year, is vital to using the welfare system the way it should be a way to help families survive during times of hardship. If Mary is given the opportunity to keep her full benefits for six months while she works and learns the skills she needs to be able to function as a low-income single parent and gets to adjust to the decline in benefits over the next six months, it accomplishes a couple of things.
This system helps Mary get a full year of work experience under her belt and become a good employee for her employer. It teaches her, with a safety net, the ways she can handle the surprises life hands you when you have a family and are poor. It gives Mary the confidence to use the skills that she has learned in a years worth of classes and perhaps continue her education or find a job that pays more money, maybe even becoming such a valuable employee that she is promoted and given raises that better her living situation. The children have a regular schedule and have a stable home life. They have food on the table, a warm home with utilities and a mom who is able to focus her attention on them and not on how she is going to feed them the next day.
What is the benefit to everyone else? For employers who have less employee turn around, there is less training and more productivity. For the rest of us, we have someone who is in the system for one year and then out of the system for good instead of staying in the system indefinitely.
Would this work for everyone? Nope, but nothing works for everyone. Would it be helpful to most? Absolutely. What can you do about it?
Contact the people who are running for office all the way from city to federal government and ask them what they plan on doing to reduce poverty in Kansas and in our country. Vote. Vote. Vote.
In a world where it sometimes takes a great effort to make a change, marking a ballot is one of the most simple and effective ways that you can make this world a better place for so many. And remember while you are in the voting booth that kindness matters!
