Leadership Toolbox: Creating a community with more economic opportunity

The following are five tips alums can use to begin to bridge understanding about economic differences at the grassroots level.

No. 1 - Identify leaders:
Find people in the your community both in and out of poverty that have an interest in building community economic opportunity and are willing to champion the issue.

No. 2 - Create across-class learning experiences:
Most people spend community involvement time with those of a similar socio-economic background. As a result, you may have little first-hand knowledge about what it’s like to live in poverty in your community. Creating across-class learning experiences, such as hosting a community forum that brings people from all socio-economic classes together, can build relationships and understanding of the challenges faced by those in poverty.

No. 3 - Understand your leaders’ perceptions:
Elected officials and other community leaders are those that can affect the most change and thereby have the most impact on economic opportunity. Knowing the prevailing perceptions – good or bad – about poverty can provide a good starting point to help identify education that might need to take place and later, frame issues in your community.

No. 4 - Understand your community :
What does it take for a family of four to make it?  Knowing what the average local wages are and what it takes to financially make it are essential pieces of knowledge in determining how much economic opportunity (or lack thereof) there is in your community. The Jobs Now Coalition website can help with this task. The website has a wage and budget calculator that can help determine what wages are needed to be on solid economic ground in your county.  The website address is: www.jobsnowcoalition.org.

No. 5 - Determine the poverty impact:
Gaining insight into just how much poverty affects your community can be achieved by gathering some widely available statistics. The percentage of students in your local schools receiving free and reduced meals, achievement scores of low income students, the rate of access to social services and the number of out-of-home placements which occur are all good indicators of how much income disparity costs in your community.