Related anti-poverty groups consider redefinement

From left, MVCAA Community Circles Coordinator Cherry Merchant, MVCAA AmerCorps VISTA Meghan Hayworth, MVCAA Career Services Director Susan Hunter, Marshall Ministerial Alliance Treasurer Jean Harms, Parents As Teachers Parent Educator Danielle Moore, MVCAA AmeriCorps VISTA Mary Ann Piper, Marshall Saline Development Corporation AmeriCorps VISTA and Prosperity Team Coordinator Josh King, and MVCAA Community Coordination Manager Lani Brite discuss the future of the Prosperity Team during the team's meeting Wednesday, Sept. 16. (Geoff Rands/Democrat-News)

What began with a simple update of goals and campaigns at the meeting of Saline County's Prosperity Team Wednesday, Sept. 16, became a re-defining of the team's goals and a clarification of its purpose and place in relation to Missouri Valley Community Action Agency's Poverty to Prosperity Team.

The Prosperity Team was formed after the 2009 Poverty to Prosperity Summit as a result of a breakout session in which representatives from each of the seven counties in attendance formed and stated the goals regarding poverty and prosperity they had for their respective counties as a result of the information they had heard during the summit.

The issues defined by that group of community members were creation of re-entry programs for released offenders and returned veterans, formation of a community foundation and promotion of good mental health in school environments.

When MVCAA Career Services Director Susan Hunter arrived at the team's meeting, she stated that the Prosperity Team was not its own entity, but rather a sub-committee of the Poverty to Prosperity Team, and she felt that the Prosperity Team had "taken on a life of its own," and steps needed to be taken in order to ensure that the original purpose of the Prosperity Team was fulfilled.

"The Poverty to Prosperity Team was started in Missouri Valley Community Action Agency with the idea of growing," said Hunter. "... I think we need to merge these two groups together; that was the intent from the beginning. We're still having a Poverty to Prosperity meeting in-house, ... but it needs to be one big group."

Hunter said that before the 2009 summit, the Poverty to Prosperity Team wasn't growing much, and organizers were excited for the summit as an opportunity to get a large group together and find out what community members felt were important issues.

"In doing that," she said, "the rest of it just became an agency thing, and that wasn't at all what it was meant to be."

"When we came, we were totally not aware that that's what it was," said Danielle Moore, parent educator for the Parents as Teachers organization.

Prosperity Team Coordinator Josh King echoed Moore's feeling of the lack of clarity in the communication between the Poverty to Prosperity Team and the Prosperity Team before Moore said, "we just thought we were going to learn more about poverty in the Saline County Area."

Hunter replied that the mission of the Poverty to Prosperity Team is indeed to "educate about poverty and do what we can about poverty."

King, after re-affirming his support of the effort, said, "I feel like we should kind of play devil's advocate and figure out why we wouldn't want to (have the Prosperity Team), because I think there might be some sort of 'con' in terms of the goals that we have set."

The Prosperity Team's mission statement, said King, "was much more about indirect service and capacity-building," and he wondered aloud if this mission would conflict with the goals of the Poverty to Prosperity Team.

"I think we can still keep the same goals that we've got with this. ... It'll give us the chance to reach out into the community," said Merchant.

Lani Brite, MVCAA Community Coordination Manager, stated that in the "previous year, it didn't take off as well as this one did ... because it was more agency than community. We didn't have quite the (number of) community members that we had doing it this year."

"We wanted definitely to get a community committee where (MVCAA) would take care of the fiduciary issues and that kind of stuff, and that's why we were looking for a chairperson away from the agency," said Hunter. "... But we've got to bring this together."

Brite then said she felt the two teams would be easily brought together.

"But we're going to have to have some other... agenda items and mission and goals. ... It's all one group, ... it's just that we've got different arms or different sub-committees and we adopted some new, more community-wide goals," said Hunter.

King then began to work with those present to change the Poverty Team to better fit with this information the team had been given.

He came up with a list of efforts by both teams that worked toward prosperity in the community, which included a community foundation; raising of poverty awareness through events, trainings and rallies; the penny campaign; re-entry for released convicts; support for returning veterans; and efforts to foster good mental health in schools.

The meeting ended with King working to brainstorm ideas for a new name and new mission statement for the Prosperity Team.

Other things discussed during the meeting included the Pay It Forward campaign, which is funded by the Grow a Penny, Make a Difference campaign.

Pay It Forward allows community members in need, who must have exhausted all other community resources, to apply for up to $100 per year for use in emergency situations. For each $25 received, they are asked to perform one hour of service to the community.

Community members can apply for these funds at the MVCAA office at 1415 S. Odell Ave.

The next meeting of the Prosperity Team and the Poverty to Prosperity Team will take place at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the MVCAA office.

Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net