Workshop to take place at University for first time

Factoid:Forty spots are still available and on-site registration is offered to those interested in attending the workshop

For one family assisted by Family Educator Liaison Diane Richey, receiving a few thousand dollars from tax refunds did not mean catering to everyday needs. Instead, it meant purchasing items that most would view as luxuries or non-essentials, particularly for someone of their financial status.

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“I worked with one family who had a huge problem with budgeting,” said Richey, a Family Educator Liaison for the Southern Illinois Regional Early Childhood Program. “It was such a huge problem for them that I had to divide their money into four envelopes for each week of the month.”

The family is just one of many that fall below the poverty level, a status determined by the number of people in a household and their annual income. Those whose yearly income causes them to fall below the line of poverty make up 12.7 percent of the U.S. population.

Although the issue of poverty is often viewed as a simple one, lecturers at the Understanding Poverty workshop have broken the status into 10 points that they hope will assist attendants in understanding poverty and why those in poverty make the decisions they make.

The three-part series, titled Understanding Poverty, will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the ballrooms of the SIUC Student Center. Several groups, including Continuing Education and groups involved in the Early Childhood Counsel, are sponsoring the workshop.

The counsel, which is composed of various entities such as area Even Start and Headstart programs, as well as local Pre- K programs, childcare facilities and special education co-operatives, are sponsoring the workshop with the intention of providing information for those who deal first-hand with those afflicted by poverty.

This is the first year for the event at SIUC. But the workshop has taken place at several universities in the northern portion of the state and recently trickled down to Southern Illinois.

Tri-County Even Start Coordinator Carolyn Reed said word of mouth was a major factor in discovering and eventually sponsoring the workshop. The series originated in Texas, a result of the work and experiences of Ruby Payne. Prior to receiving her doctorate degree, Payne began life in poverty and went on to evolve from this state.

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Others are involved with the workshop such as Raye Adkins, who will lecture at SIUC and travel to various locations across the country to provide information on Understanding Poverty. The realizations reached by sponsors caused Richey and others to refer to the series as the ‘A Ha’ workshop.

“After she gave the presentation to us, all any of could say was ‘Oh!'” Richey said. ” It cleared up so much and it made so much sense to us that all we could do was walk around saying, ‘A Ha.’

When you walk away everything will make perfect sense, and you’ll realize the decisions people in poverty make are not bad, they are just based on what they know.”

Reed said attending the presentation has helped her to better understand the decisions made by those in poverty; something that she and others said has improved their ability to work with clients.

“I would encourage any educator or anyone working in the social services to attend, ” Reed said. “It just gives you a broader understanding. The more efficient you are, the easier it is to be more understanding.”