Re: Nonprofit helps the poor find their voice

Wandering Bear (wandering_bear@hotmail.com)
Tue, 20 Jan 1998 12:51:06 PST 

 Heres the problem that I find in non-profits.Its become to much of an 
us and them situation.Those that give and help and those that receve.
 Often times that is the social dividing line.This is what breaks up
the Equallity on the social level.Most homeless are capible of taking 
care of themselves when given the space to.All they lack is money.
 The thing is that many of those working with the homeless as vollenter 
social workers get the idea that these people are invalid and not 
capible of being dealt with in any other manner than an athoritarian 
structure.Us up here you down there.Its compleatly subconcous, the 
people dont realize there doing it.But because most of the time the 
shelters are only thought of a temperary this temperary hands off 
apporoch to dealing with the homeless is what is prevalent.
 For most of the homeless out there homelessness is not temperary.
The shelters and encampments become their home and their community.
 For this reason I adovocate a more permanat solution.
Instead of treating the shelters as temperary and adding to the stigma
of homelessness.They should be more permanat co-operitive commuities in 
which the homeless have a say as to how things are run as equal
members of the co-operitive counsil.Each peson haveing an equall vote.
Peace Love and Light:)
Wandering Bear


>Precedence: bulk
>
>On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Tom Boland wrote:
>
>> Pat wrote on 1-18-97 in "Re: Nonprofit helps the poor find their 
voice":
>> >Another concern I have is that poverty pimps may be "enriched" at 
the
>> >expense of those whom they believe they "help" by more than money.
>> 
>> Most poor and homeless people I know need money much more than we 
need
>> caretakers.  Yet those who help us meet our aims merit at least 
enough pay
>> to survive.
>
>guess I didn't say this very well, Tom...I was trying to suggest that
>there were pitfalls with voluntarism, and that peer advocacy *ought to 
be
>remunerated!  (need to think before I type, I guess!)
> 
>> It's not unfair to get paid to help others, but too often social 
programs
>> do too little to end or even reduce poverty and homelessness.  
Homeless
>> people need the power to decide which efforts to help us are worth 
funding.
>
>exactly. and those who have shared their experiences will naturally be
>more trustworthy, and more competent at helpgiving; resource offering,
>etc.  As well as being more naturally respectful for the stresses that 
go
>with homelessness/poverty/marginalization/illiteracy, etc.
>
>> >....We *can help ourselves, and we *can be advocates without poverty 
pimping
>> >(let's find a way to -- albeit long and drawn-out  --  say what that 
is
>> >every time, ok?)...
>> 
>> "Poverty pimp" is a label used to discredit those who speak and do 
"for"
>> the poor.  I too detest the better-than-thou mindset among those who 
speak
>> and do "for" us.  But lest we become biased, we need a fair standard 
for
>> who is a poverty pimp and who isn't.  People who make professional 
pay but
>> do little to help their "charges" would merit the label of "poverty 
pimp",
>> I think.
>> 
>yes.  And not everyone who is paid does this "little to help" or has 
the
>mindset of "charges" or some vertical idea of power and authority or
>ability in their heads.
>
>> *Any ideas, anyone, on what shows for sure that a person is a 
"poverty pimp"?
>> 
>> >This is an issue I've been wrestling with for a long 
time...advocacy.
>> >I was a single parent with two young children...no help but Welfare 
and
>> >school...then worked my way through several years of school...I'd 
been
>> >homeless, actually, more than once in my life (and dread the 
possibility
>> >of another such experience!)...am I not a fair advocate for all the 
groups
>> >mentioned above?  Is accepting recompense (monetary) for what I 
might
>> >do...is *that poverty pimping?  Hell, I'm *still poor!
>> 
>> Those of us on the list, who live poor ourselves and help our peers, 
are
>> not poverty pimps.  Maybe the core question comes down to whether a 
few
>> deserve much, much more than others, when many have too little to 
even get
>> by.
>> 
>agreed.  But those who help without denigrating those for whom they
>advocate, deserve a living wage, and recognition of their efforts to 
help
>without oppressing or exploiting...and they are out there...in here...
>
>> *What's constitutes "equity", in the sense of a fair distribution of 
wealth
>> and power?  Any philosophers out there to shed light on such a big
>> question?--Tom
>> 
>> me too.  PatM
>> 
>> 
>
>************************************
>"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to 
>and you have found out the exact measure of 
>injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them...
>Frederick Douglass
>
>


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