In short,
A community with no poverty is one in which every resident is safe. It is not idyllic any more than your desire for your own children to be free from rape, murder, and assault is idyllic.
A community with no poverty is one in which schools are not allowed to continue failing their children at rates that have them four grades behind by the time they reach high school.
A community with no poverty has financial institutions close by and easily accessible health care, child care, and transportation.
A community with no poverty has less to do with government assistance and more to do with the engagement of its members in creating opportunities.
In detail,
The characteristics of a community with full economic stability include:
Up-to-code housing available for everyone who seeks it
Increased use of 3D homes and other affordable home ownership options where adequate housing has not been available for community members.
Adequate public transportation so individuals can efficiently get to work or to extracurricular activities
Nobody in your community should have to travel 90 minutes to get 10 miles, as is the case in many parts of the country today where individuals without their own means of transportation must rely on public transportation.
Children not passed from grade to grade without being at grade level in reading, math, and other agreed-upon metrics for learning.
Accessible healthcare for all residents who do not have their own means of transportation
Wellness and fitness facilities (e.g., recreation centers, healthy food stores, gyms), as well as a range of treatment centers (e.g., primary care facilities, labs, clinics, hospitals) are as easily accessible as they are in middle- and upper-income communities
Banks and financial planners located in or close by neighborhoods to assist residents in saving money for their futures and their children’s futures
Given the abundance of healthy food and the means to ensure every resident of the U.S. also has clean drinking water, No child or adult chronically hungry or malnourished
Healthy food, clean drinking water
Employment opportunities are plentiful for people with various training and skill sets
Apprenticeships
Emphasis for youth on pathways to financial stability
Safe streets/no violence in public domains
In communities where violence currently persists, this means an immediate and unrelenting use of resources, to include bringing in our country’s leading violence interruption organizations and fully funding and staffing efforts.
Ending poverty means each of these conditions exists for every family. The SHP Action Guide offers innovative steps, practical efforts, and proven strategies to help you solve local problems and create lasting opportunities in your community. See for yourself here.
The Rising Up Series
Learn from people with first-hand experience about what works and what does not work in our current approach to poverty.