Working to end child poverty through 'faith'

   Whenever someone talks about jobs or housing for people living in poverty, I start wondering how the babies and toddlers are doing.  Who is reading to them?  Who is engaging them in conversation about the world around them? Who is giving them the power of language and music? Who is hugging them, saying “I love you, baby” and bonding with them so that they will bond with the world?   
  
   What role does a congregation play in this enterprise?  In places of worship, where there’s a sense of community and caring—could there be a special place to offer parenting information and parent support to rear children birth to age 5?  What would it take to empower pastors with information about young children’s brain development?

   Those were some of the questions behind the project: “Pastor Interviews on 0-5 Brain Development.”  The initiative was born from a gathering of clergy and volunteers called End Poverty Network.
  
   The End Poverty Network began in 2005 by Pastors Mel Williams and Haywood Holderness, and key community members who felt a strong call to address Durham’s poverty.  In a city with an average annual wage of $49,800—well above the state average—the 14 percent adult poverty rate and the 20 percent child poverty rate is especially troublesome.
 
   The interfaith movement began with the goal to work to end poverty in Durham in 25 years and educate our congregations about the crisis of poverty and explore ways to alleviate it.

    Three major initiatives in process—A jobs center, a job creation project for low-income Durham residents at Duke Medical Center, and a 0 to 5 Workgroup to educate congregations on issues that affect young children birth to age 5.
   
   Durham’s Partnership for Children and the Durham Family Initiative connected with this workgroup to provide it with resources—human, technical, and material.
We are beginning with a survey that will assess congregations’ activities with children, particularly in that age group of birth to 5. In exchange for participating in the survey, the congregation receives a resource notebook containing a database of more than 30 organizations that provide parent support for families with young children, as well as some accessible handouts for their congregations on simple activities to enhance the brain development of young children.

   The survey itself has several open-ended questions which allow the pastors to begin thinking of how they might encourage stronger parenting skills in their congregations, or network with other congregations or agencies to support healthy families.
Aggregated information from the survey should be available after June 30, 2008.  From a list of 400 congregations in Durham, the effort is well underway to interview 150 congregations for the survey.  A cross section of all demographics of the county are included to gain a good sample of large, small, rural, urban, as well as varied denominations.

   Once the survey collection is completed, the End Poverty Network will begin to look at how congregations incorporate issues that affect young children in their work to support their outreach with people living in poverty.

   This work in partnership with Durham’s Partnership for Children and the Durham Family Initiative is important in better aligning the good work of congregations across Durham County with services offered by community agencies and other nonprofits to support young children’s healthy development and their families’ self-sufficiency.

Ann Stock is a community volunteer leading the 0 to 5 Workgroup under the  End Poverty Network.