LINC trains to better understand the paths through and out of poverty
LINC’s Eric Clayborne (left) shares reactions with Josiah Melzer, a community engagement specialist with the Missouri Department of Social Services, during DSS’s training on “Bridges Out of Poverty” at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley in Kansas City Aug. 8.
When it came to understanding the paths through and out of poverty, the LINC teams in the training room were ready for an advanced course.
Whether it’s the Caring Communities Coordinators who work with children and families, or LINC’s work assistance team helping adults on welfare, or the youth services team supporting youth in foster care, all have seen the face of poverty. Some have experienced it themselves.
So when LINC gathered its staff with specialists from the Missouri Department of Social Services to train on “Bridges out of Poverty,” the work got serious fast.
“This is an opportunity to get training on the life experiences of the people we serve and spur conversations among our staff,” said LINC Chief Operating Officer Jeff Hill.
“It’s critically important,” he said, “that our work is sympathetic and centered on the experiences of the community.”
Need help with state services?
DSS Community Engagement Specialists Josiah Melzer and Keri McKee came as leaders of the training with a shared mission with LINC to understand how environments shape the lives of clients and to learn the different behaviors and strategies people lean on to cope in the face of hardships.
They explored examples of disconnections — like someone of more comfortable means not being able to understand why a parent would work on a weekend and miss their child’s basketball game, or why someone would spend the last of a paycheck on taking the family to a movie when a utility bill is still unpaid.
They explored in these examples how low-income workers often rely on jobs that demand inflexible hours. And that many people under the stress of poverty find a survival mechanism in seeking happiness.
Understanding coping mechanisms is important, said LINC’s Danisha Fultz, a member of the youth services team.
“(The training) is a reminder,” she said, “of being ready to check yourself in moments of biases.”
Aaron Bond, who works with LINC’s adult services team, saw the training as an opportunity to engage in a deeper exploration of poverty with other LINC teams and benefit from insights from a fuller range of experiences.
It helps get out of the “tunnel vision” of his focus on helping parents rise out of the need for welfare, Bond said, “and connect with different ideas and different points of view from all the people in this group.”
As a new school year begins, the weight on many families only threatens to grow.
“(The training) is helping put my mind back on focus,” said LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Da’Maun Scott. “Because we are in a society in need of support with resources getting diminished.”
“We have to identify more the signs of people in need who are struggling,” said LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Eric Clayborne.
“We need to be able to help in the appropriate way,” he said. “Help without moralizing or belittling. Help in the most natural, organic way.”
LINC’s mission, Hill said, is to help bridge the gaps in the social safety net and help people in need get support to move beyond the point of needing help.
LINC intentionally brought all of its service departments together for the training to strengthen that work together, he said.
“We have to draw in together and understand each other’s experiences,” he said, “and how we can better help people move along to where they can contribute to their community in the maximum way possible.”
By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer
DSS Community Engagement Specialist Keri McKee leads a discussion with LINC teams on “Bridges Out of Poverty.”
