Poverty Among Whites Deserves Attention, Too

For the past 40 years my work has focused on engaging more people in fighting urban poverty, through the creation and support of well organized, mentor-rich, non school tutoring, mentoring and learning organizations. I've also been using maps to focus attention on places where poverty levels are highest. You can find many of these maps on the Mappingforjustice.com blog site. The one I show here is from a GatewaytoCollege site.

I've hosted Tutor/Mentor Conferences since 1994 and often participants would come from rural areas and comment that most of the ideas and links in my library focus on urban poverty. When I've had that conversation I've said, "Duplicate what I've been doing. Build a rural-focused Tutor/Mentor Connection."

Today I read an article in the Huffington Post, titled "Poverty Among Whites Demands Philanthropy's Attention". This report says, "According to recent census data, 42 percent of the poor -- some 18.9 million people -- are non-Hispanic whites."

The article below shows the four-part strategy I've developed since 1994, which focuses on urban poverty and ways people can connect, learn, innovate and work collectively so solve complex problems. This could be duplicated by anyone, or more than one organization, to focus on rural poverty, or other social/environmental issues.

Problem-Solving Strategy-Explanation and Overview by Daniel F. Bassill

I'd be happy to help groups understand this strategy and apply it to other sectors and other places than Chicago.