Brainstorm on poverty a rich idea
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Lolis Eric Elie
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Tulane and Xavier universities jointly run the National Center for the Urban Community.
Loyola University has the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center,
which is hosting a panel discussion Thursday titled "The
Working Poor of New Orleans After the Storm."
No doubt other local universities have their own initiatives
aimed at alleviating poverty in New Orleans. But what is most
striking is not that the issue has been so close to the
hearts of these educational institutions. Rather, it is
striking that the issue has been so distant from their core
expertise, that of studying complicated phenomena and
teaching the findings.
Wouldn't it make sense for a university to assemble the
necessary scholarship and expertise to offer a curriculum in
poverty reduction?
Designing right curricula
This is the idea of Total Community Action Executive Director
Peter Dangerfield. The nonprofit makes the case in its
86-page poverty-reduction proposal titled "Chronic
Poverty in New Orleans."
"Leaders and workers assigned to poverty reduction have
taken on what is arguably one of the formidable undertakings
of our time -- poverty reduction -- without the benefit of
formal preparation," the report says.
The report, which was released in July, cites several local
examples of curricula designed in response to specific needs.
Loyola established a master of quality management program
once quality management became a buzzword. Tulane established
a casino and resort management program in response to the
growth of legalized gambling.
"One of our needs is to engage, on a large scale,
universities to develop curriculum in which leaders and
workers can acquire the skills required to develop models
that can be used to systematically address poverty," the
report says.
Ending the sad cycle
The panel discussion is the last in a series of discussions
under the heading "After the Storm: Four Nights of
Conversation on Post-Katrina New Orleans."
The working poor will be the focus of this panel, and their
condition deserves our attention. But, according to the
preliminary results of a poll that Total Community Action is
taking of displaced New Orleanians, the working poor are not
the New Orleanians expressing the most fervent intention to
return home.
"We're finding that the ones who say they are definitely
coming back are the unemployed," Dangerfield said.
We would be wise to remember that the weakness of our levees
and the insufficiency of our evacuation plan weren't the only
deficiencies unearthed by Katrina. The depth of local poverty
also was brought graphically to light.
Shoring up our levees and improving evacuation should be only
part of our plan.
. . . . . . .
Lolis Eric Elie can be reached at lelie@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3330.