Friday, 2 May 2014

[The Network] Fwd: [FSSscattered] Fwd: Poverty 101 April 28-May 2 - "Healthy Professional Introspective"

FYI, attached are your summer resources for kids. Boys and Girls Club is a great resource for kids and the Parks and Rec pass is a must for our kids. Please help your parents access them. Thanks DPS EOP!
Lynn Thayer
Case Manager, Family Support Services
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless
720-628-1644
Fax: 303-340-3934
 

-----Original Message-----
From: "Theisen, Anna" <ANNA_THEISEN@dpsk12.org>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Date: Fri, 2 May 2014 17:43:27 +0000
Subject: Poverty 101 April 28-May 2 - "Healthy Professional Introspective"

Dear Colleagues,
 
We apologize for the gap in our weekly emails! EOP has been very busy since our return from break. We wanted to take a moment to share with you all some updates:
1.        We had over 65 people attend our final Poverty 101 Training for the 13-14 school year on April 7th . We received great response and feedback from attendees. We will be working on scheduling training dates for next year and will keep you all posted.
2.        We currently have 2,100 students identified for the 13-14 school year. This is a staggering number and our team would like to personally thank each of you for your help in supporting these students. Many of you have gone above and beyond your daily duties to help eliminate barriers these amazing students face each day.
3.        EOP will be moving, restructuring and expanding for the upcoming school year! This is all good and positive change for our program and students. We will share details when they are finalized.
 
Lastly, it is almost the end of a very successful and impactful school year! However, it is also a time when difficult situations and conversations tend to occur or resurface. You may notice a student acting out in class due to fear of not knowing what he may do over the summer when school is not in session, or a mother losing contact with you because she feels like she was unable to support her children’s education due to poverty barriers. You may have had a difficult or explosive interaction with a student previously in the year and may still have unresolved feelings about this. You may have lost contact with a student or family you had a great relationship with or you may have experienced issues surrounding poor communication or a misunderstanding with a colleague. These situations can get in the way of us feeling proud of the work we do each day and remembering our purpose:
Positively Impact Participants, whether it is our students or their families.
 
 
The attached handout from Melinda Marasch, LCSW form Aspire Training & Consulting is titled
“Healthy Professional Introspective”
It offers some guidance in preparing for difficult conversations & encounters, as well as debriefing after them. Taking a moment to answer these questions can help you feel resolution about the situation even if it did not go the way you had anticipated. The goal is to help end the year strong and complete!
 
          Have a wonderful weekend! Take some time to enjoy the warm sunshine. J
          We have attached our summer resource guide- please share and thank you Jackie for putting it together!
 
Sincerely,
EOP
 
Subject: Poverty 101 March 10-14 -"Get the Facts"
 
All - Please take a moment to take the quiz below:
 
1.     Families receiving TANF (Colorado Works-Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) get enough to pay rent, daycare, monthly household necessities)   True or False
2.     There are many affordable rental opportunities for families in Denver.  True or False
3.     Denver families receive enough for a month of food if they are receiving food stamps (SNAP)  True or False
4.     According to a recent census, two-thirds of people living in poverty work 1.7 jobs. True or False
5.     Youth living in poverty are the least likely to become educated in our nation. True or False
 
For the answers to these questions and more please RSVP for our upcoming Poverty 101 PD on Monday April 7th at the Smedley Campus form 9-3. You will have the opportunity to examine you own thoughts and beliefs about students and families living in poverty, define the different definitions of poverty and gain immediate tools you can start using to help support and better connect with our community.
This will be our final training for the 13-14 school year and over 200 DPS team members have already attended! THANK YOU!
 
Question/Check-in- What was 1 thing you did this week to RELAX and REJUVENATE?????
I love to bake however, I am not very good at it. I decided to bake a cake with my 2 year old daughter this past weekend for my rejuvenate activity goal. We turned on some happy music, threw on some aprons and mixed away! We made a huge mess and the cake was awful but……. We had a blast and it really helped me to be in that moment of fun and laughter!
 
As we start planning for the 14-15 school year we have included our A-Z School/Community Building Blocks handout for educating students living in poverty. Take a moment to read to see how many of these blocks your school or agency already has and how many we can work to add or enhance.
 
I have also included our *NEW Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Higher ED Packet. A huge THANK YOU to Jackie for putting all of the information in one place!!!
Have a great week!
Sincerely,
EOP
 
Anna Theisen | Homeless Liaison
Educational Outreach Program, Denver Public Schools
1330 Fox Street, 3rd Floor North | Denver, CO  80204
Ph 720.423.8230 | Fax 720.423.8242 | * Anna_Theisen@dpsk12.org   Website : http://eop.dpsk12.org
     I play for DPS!
“We cannot ignore poverty. It comes to school with our students and follows them home. Our goal is to address the barriers of poverty and work together to improve educational outcomes”. – Dr. Donna Beegle
NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review, distribute, or copy the message. Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
Subject: Poverty 101 March 3-7 -" Relax and Rejuvenate"
 
Hello!
Our team is currently attending a Direct Service Provider Certification training offered by Aspire Training and Consulting. One of the goals of the training is to define our success at work.
Our purpose and success at work is simple: Positively Impact Participants, whether it is our students or their families.
 
We do this by:
Being resilient
Develop and maintain rapport (boundaries)
Understand and believe in success/change
Focus/ be mindful
Maximize opportunities to
*Establish focus
*Develop insight
*Support motivation
 
And most of all taking care of our overall well-being!
 
We know that this can be a very busy and stressful time of the school year and we challenge all of you to do the following this week:
                    Self Care Strategies
1.        Stay healthy in real life
2.        Relax and Rejuvenate!
3.        Exercise
4.        Eat healthy
5.        Get healthy sleep
6.        Take care of all aspects of yourself
7.        Watch harmful behaviors
8.        Deal with traumatic events
9.        Be around people that make you happy
10.   Leave work at home- have a plan for the transition home. Example: My husband and I give each other 5 minutes to talk about our work day and then we are done.
 
 
Please take a moment to think of one thing you can do this week to RELAX and REJUVENATE
This may include physical health, mind health and spiritual health. Share with someone to help keep you focused on completing this.
 
We will be offering our final Poverty 101 PD on Monday April 7th (please see attached flyer).
Space is limited so please send your RSVP ASAP J
 
 
Please take a moment to read this week’s article:
Jenn’s Words: “Living in poverty is like being punched in the face over and over and over on a daily basis. “ | Poor as Folk
http://poorasfolk.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/jenns-words-living-in-poverty-is-like-being-punched-in-the-face-over-and-over-and-over-on-a-daily-basis/
 
EOP would like to sincerely thank the Janus Capital Group for their generosity in helping to support our emergency food program. Through their support EOP is able to assist in providing emergency meal packs and grocery cards for families facing food insecurity. THANK YOU!
 
Have a wonderful week and please remember that personal well-being enhances your level of professional excellence! Be kind to yourself!
 
While we know that TCAP testing is a very busy and exciting time for our schools, please remember that all schools must be in compliance of the McKinney-Vento Act. New homeless students must be allowed to immediately enroll and be attending their neighborhood public school in which they are residing even during the TCAP testing period. Please contact your area Homeless Liaison for assistance in determining enrollment decisions.
 
Sincerely,
EOP
 
Anna Theisen | Homeless Liaison
Educational Outreach Program, Denver Public Schools
1330 Fox Street, 3rd Floor North | Denver, CO  80204
Ph 720.423.8230 | Fax 720.423.8242 | * Anna_Theisen@dpsk12.org   Website : http://eop.dpsk12.org
     I play for DPS!
“We cannot ignore poverty. It comes to school with our students and follows them home. Our goal is to address the barriers of poverty and work together to improve educational outcomes”. – Dr. Donna Beegle
NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review, distribute, or copy the message. Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
 
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 10:36 AM
Subject: Poverty 101 Feb 14th- Love is in the air!
 
 
Hi- Since today is Valentine’s Day, I wanted my email to reflect the need to take care of ourselves  to help combat “Burnout.”  I recently attended this great training from the YESS institute (Carlo Kriekels)regarding this concept. It was reported that almost 40% of people in a field like ours experience burnout at any time. That number saddens me for many reasons. One, for people in this line of work that truly want to help; but another for the families we serve. If 40% of us are burned out how does that affect the way we help and treat families?
 
The presenter used a great metaphor about how we need to be when working with families in poverty. “Newspaper burner” versus “coals.” If we act like a burning newspaper we will exhaust quickly but if we burn the way coals do then we can stay the course and “burn” evenly. That is something I am going to try to be better with. After 10 years in my position, it is easy to “burnout” but to be more mindful of working through family situations will lead to better results and hopefully less feelings of burnout.
 
Another area he discussed was “self-care.” All of us probably do a great job at giving but not in receiving. The 4 areas of self-care include: physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual. We may be doing well in one of these area but maybe another is lacking. He explained the importance of “self-acknowledgement.” Acknowledge yourself for the things you do well professionally and personally. This can help us shift from change agent to inspiring agent. Performing our jobs from an inspirational place can help us be:
1.        More long term in our employment
2.        Have more intrinsic feelings of our work
3.        Be more passionate- love in action of our work
4.        Pro-active in our day
5.        Be the best we can be
 
I ask of you today to take a moment and make a list of at least 3 wonderful things about you and share them with someone. I bet that person will be able to add at least 3 more things J
 
One last area is an idea called the “love cup.” This is basically your personal measuring cup of your level of internal reserves for giving. Picture your favorite cup and then imagine it has holes in it from your daily life (like professional stuff, physical, kids, health, emotional, filling others cups). With all these holes it is no wonder why we can become burned out! The presenter asked us if we could think of the “holes in the cup” that affect our lives the most. Then think of ways you can try and fix or “slow down” the leaks. This can help keep your “love cup” more full J
 
A strategy he provided us can help with self-protection. It is called Quick Focus. It can help ground you in your day. If you are requested by someone to do something, ask yourself:
1.        Why would I say YES?
2.        Is this on track with what I want to do?
3.        What do I expect in return?
He shared that these boundaries can help you make the most of your day and keep/create the best relationships. If you have only $30,000 to your name but spend $60,000 what happens? This idea is related to your “love cup.” If you are giving too much all the time and not filling yourself up that will catch up with you in your work and life. You deserve a good balance and I hope these concepts can support you in all the great work you do!
 
 
 
EOP thanks you all for the “love” and care you provide families. We are thankful to collaborate with you to help fight this villain of poverty! Together we are making a difference! Jackie Bell
 
** We have added some new folks to our weekly email list. WELCOME! If you do not wish to be included in these emails please let us know.
 
Jackie Bell l Educational Outreach Program, Homeless Liaison
Ph: 720.423.8228 l Fax: 720.423.8242 l Website:  http://eop.dpsk12.org
“I Play for Team DPS”
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review,distribute, or copy the message.  Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of February 3-7 "Self Reflection"
 
All- Attached is updated cold weather emergency shelter information and updated flyers on two Transitional Housing programs in Denver.
This week’s article examines stereotypes. What stereotypes do you have that might be serving as a barrier to connecting and serving our students and their families? It is a long one but a good one!
This sums up why it is so important to be in constant examination of our thoughts and beliefs about students in poverty:
Why, you may be wondering, are we spending so much time on stereotypes? Why are we focusing on all of this negativity rather than talking about what we can do to strengthen educational opportunities for all students?
… In the end, our understandings of poverty and our attitudes toward poor families play an enormous role, and perhaps the most enormous role, in how we see and treat our low-income students (Robinson, 2007; Williams, 2009), not to mention the lengths to which we will or will not go to advocate for them and their educational rights.
 
Five stereotypes about poor families and education
By Valerie Strauss, Updated: October 28, 2013 at 4:00 am
Here is an excerpt from a new book called “ Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap,” by Paul C. Gorski, associate professor of integrative studies at George Mason University. The book, which draws from years of research to analyze educational practices that undercut the achievement of low-income students, is part of the Multicultural Education Series of books edited by James A. Banks and published by Teachers College Columbia University.
The Trouble with the ‘Culture of Poverty’ and Other Stereotypes about People in Poverty by Paul C. Gorski
A long-time colleague of mine with a penchant for road rage—I’ll call him Frederick—is fond of flinging the word “jerk” at drivers whose driving skills have offended him in some way. That is, he is fond of flinging this term at male drivers, or drivers he assumes to be men, and reserves it for them exclusively. When a driver he assumes to be a woman pulls in front of him, neglects to use a turn signal, or drives a few miles per hour under the speed limit, his response is different. Rather than calling her a jerk, he shakes his head, brow furled, and exclaims with exasperation, “Women drivers!”
I have challenged Frederick several times on what appears, to me, to be a clear case of gender stereotyping, of a biased view that looks a lot like sexism. He responds to my challenges firmly: “That’s not a stereotype. It’s my experience. Women are bad drivers.” He tends to append to this defense the common refrain, “Plus, there’s a hint of truth in stereotypes; otherwise, why would so many people believe them?”
As troubling as his attitude might be, Frederick is not alone in his view or in his tendency to see somebody within his gender group who has offended his sensibilities as an outlier, a jerk, while interpreting a female offender as representing all women. A long history of psycho-social research details the human tendency to imagine our own social and cultural groups as diverse while we imagine “the other,” people belonging to a social or cultural group with which we are less familiar, as being, for all intents and purposes, all the same (e.g., Meiser & Hewstone, 2004).
Cognitively speaking, our stereotyping has been shown to be a natural and necessary human response in the face of limited context-specific knowledge. A woman’s stereotype about men might prove to be an over-generalization in most instances but her intuition eventually could protect her from sexual assault. However, the content of stereotypes is only partially organic, only partially based upon a measured consideration of the totality of our experiences. Stereotypes grow, as well, from how we’re socialized (Shier, Jones, & Graham, 2010). They are the result of what we are taught to think about poor people, for instance, even if we are poor, through celebrations of “meritocracy” or by watching a parent lock the car doors when driving through certain parts of town. They grow, as well, from a desire to find self-meaning by distinguishing between social and cultural in groups with which we do and do not identify (Homsey, 2008). That’s the heady science of it….
… When I teach a class or deliver a workshop about poverty and schools, I often begin by asking participants to reflect on a question: Why are poor people poor? Answers vary. However, even when participants believe that societal inequities are responsible for a portion of or even most poverty they almost always qualify their responses with a litany of stereotypes: Poor people are lazy. They don’t care about education. They’re alcoholics and drug abusers. They don’t want to work; instead, they are addicted to the welfare system. Unfortunately, these are not outlier views. Most people in the U.S. believe that poor people are poor because of their own deficiencies rather than inequitable access to services and opportunities (Rank, Yoon, & Hirschl, 2003).
So, what if I told you that some stereotypes commonly associated with poor people, such as a propensity for alcohol abuse, are truer of wealthy people than they are of poor people (Galea et al, 2007)? It’s true. But how often do we, in the education world, apply this stereotype to wealthy people? How often do we hear, “No wonder so many rich kids don’t do well at college; their parents are all alcoholics…”?
On the other hand, I might have 5, 10, or 20 low-income students who do not fit a particular stereotype about poor people, but if I have 2 or 3 who do fit it, those 2 or 3 can become, if I’m not aware of my biases, sufficient evidence to confirm my existing stereotype. As Jervis (2006) explains, “Given the complexity and ambiguity of our world, it is unfortunately true that beliefs for which a good deal of evidence can be mustered often turn out to be mistaken” (p. 643). If a low-income student regularly does not turn in homework, am I quicker to attribute it to her socioeconomic status than I would for a student in my own economic bracket?
Let’s consider another school-based example. There exist several common stereotypes about poor people in the U.S. that suggest that they are inattentive and, as a result, ineffective parents. Low-income parents or guardians who do not attend parent-teacher conferences can become targets of stereotyping—or worse, targets of blame—by those educators. According to Jervis (2006),
Judgments…can be self-reinforcing as ambiguous evidence is taken not only to be consistent with preexisting beliefs, but to confirm them. Logically, the latter is the case only when the evidence both fits with the belief and does not fit the competing ones. But people rarely probe the latter possibility as carefully as they should. (p. 651)
So, whereas a more well-to-do parent or guardian might be pardoned for missing structured opportunities for family involvement—she’s traveling for work—a low-income parent or guardian’s lack of this sort of involvement might be interpreted as additional evidence of disinterest in her or his child’s schooling (Pattereson, Hale, & Stessman, 2007).
In our efforts to become equity literate educators, one of our first tasks is to understand our own socializations and the ways in which we have bought into the stereotypes that hinder our abilities to connect with low-income families, or any families, in the most authentic, open way. It’s not easy. It takes an awful lot of humility to say we harbor stereotypes. The fact that many of us have been trained as teachers and administrators with frameworks like the “culture of poverty” that encourage stereotyping does not help. One important step in this process, though, is to nudge ourselves to rethink some of the most common stereotypes that exist about people in poverty and the extent to which we have been duped into believing them.
Mis-perceivers Are We: Common Stereotypes about Poor Families and Education
Poor people in the U.S. are stereotyped in innumerable ways (Williams, 2009). A vast majority of these stereotypes are just plain inaccurate. In fact, some are truer of wealthy people than poor people.
I decided several years ago to test a list of the stereotypes about people in poverty that are most common among my teacher education students against social science evidence (Gorski, 2008a), a process I revisited more recently in preparation for writing this book (Gorski, 2012). Is there a hint of truth in every stereotype? I wondered.
Here’s what I found.
Stereotype 1: Poor People Do Not Value Education
The most popular measure of parental attitudes about education, particularly among teachers, is “family involvement” (Jeynes, 2011). This stands to reason, as research consistently confirms a correlation between family involvement and school achievement (Lee & Bowen, 2006; Oyserman, Brickman, & Rhodes, 2007). However, too often, our notions of family involvement are limited in scope, focused only on in-school involvement—the kind of involvement that requires parents and guardians to visit their children’s schools or classrooms. While it is true that low-income parents and guardians are less likely to participate in this brand of “involvement” (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005), they engage in home-based involvement strategies, such as encouraging children to read and limiting television watching, more frequently than their wealthier counterparts (Lee & Bowen, 2006).
It might be easy, given the stereotype that low-income families do not value education, to associate low-income families’ less consistent engagement in on-site, publicly visible, school involvement, such as parent-teacher conferences, with an ethic that devalues education. In fact, research has shown that many teachers assume that low-income families are completely uninvolved in their children’s education (Patterson, Hale, & Stessman, 2007). However, in order to assume a direct relationship between disparities in on-site involvement and a disregard for the importance of school, we would have to omit considerable amounts of contrary evidence. First, low-income parents and guardians experience significant class-specific barriers to school involvement. These include consequences associated with the scarcity of living wage jobs, such as the ability to afford childcare or public transportation or the ability to afford to take time off from wage work (Bower & Griffin, 2011; Li, 2010). They also include the weight of low-income parents’ and guardians’ own school experiences, which often were hostile and unwelcoming (Lee & Bowen, 2006). Although some schools and districts have responded to these challenges by providing on-site childcare, transportation, and other mitigations, the fact remains that, on average, this type of involvement is considerably less accessible to poor families than to wealthier ones.
Broadly speaking, there simply is no evidence, beyond differences in on-site involvement, that attitudes about the value of education in poor communities differ in any substantial way from those in wealthier communities. The evidence, in fact, suggests that attitudes about the value of education among families in poverty are identical to those among families in other socioeconomic strata. In other words, poor people, demonstrating impressive resilience, value education just as much as wealthy people (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Grenfell & James, 1998) despite the fact that they often experience schools as unwelcoming and inequitable.
For example:
  • in a study of low-income urban families, Compton-Lilly (2000) found that parents overwhelmingly have high educational expectations for their children and expect their children’s teachers to have equally high expectations for them, particularly in reading;
  • in their study focusing on low-income African American parents, Cirecie West-Olatunji and her colleagues (2010) found that they regularly reached out to their children’s schools and stressed the importance of education to their children;
  • similarly, Patricia Jennings (2004), in her study on how women on welfare respond to the “culture of poverty” stereotype, found that single mothers voraciously valued and sought out educational opportunities for themselves, both as a way to secure living wage work and as an opportunity to model the importance of school to their children;
  • based on their study of 234 low-income parents and guardians, Kathryn Drummond and Deborah Stipek (2004) found that they worked tirelessly to support their children’s intellectual development;
  • during an ethnographic study of a racially diverse group of low-income families, Guofang Li (2010) found that parents, including those who were not English-proficient, used a variety of strategies to bolster their children’s literacy development;
  • a recent study shows, contrasting popular perception, that poor families invest just as much time as their wealthier counterparts exploring school options for their children (Grady, Bielick, & Aud, 2010); and
  • using data from the more than 20,000 families that participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Carey Cooper and her colleagues (2010) found, quite simply, that “poor parents reported engaging their children in home-learning activities as often as nonpoor parents” (p. 876).
As with any stereotype, the notion that people in poverty don’t value education might have more to do with our well-intended misinterpretations of social realities than with their disinterest in school. For example, some low-income families, and particularly low-income immigrant families, may not be as informed as their wealthier counterparts about how educational systems in the U.S. work (Ceja, 2006; Lareau & Meininger, 2008), an obvious consequence of the alienation from school systems many poor people experience, starting with their time as students. It can be easy to interpret this lack of understanding, which is a symptom, itself, of educational inequities, as disinterest. Similarly, it can be easy to interpret lower levels of some types of school involvement, including types that are not scheduled or structured to be accessible to low-income families, as evidence that low-income parents simply don’t care about school. But these interpretations, in the end, are based more on stereotype than reality. They are, for the most part, just plain wrong.
The challenge for us, then, is to do the difficult work of considering what we are apt to misinterpret, not simply as a fluffy attempt at “inclusion,” but as a high-stakes matter of student success. After all, research also shows that when teachers perceive that their parents value education, they tend to assess student work more positively (Hill & Craft, 2003). Bias matters.
Stereotype 2: Poor People Are Lazy
Another common stereotype about poor people, and particularly poor people of color (Cleaveland, 2008; Seccombe, 2002), is that they are lazy or have weak work ethics (Kelly, 2010). Unfortunately, despite its inaccuracy, the “laziness” image of people in poverty and the stigma attached to it has particularly devastating effects on the morale of poor communities (Cleaveland, 2008).
The truth is, there is no indication that poor people are lazier or have weaker work ethics than people from other socioeconomic groups (Iversen & Farber, 1996; Wilson, 1997). To the contrary, all indications are that poor people work just as hard as, and perhaps harder than, people from higher socioeconomic brackets (Reamer, Waldron, Hatcher, & Hayes, 2008). In fact, poor working adults work, on average, 2,500 hours per year, the rough equivalent of 1.2 full time jobs (Waldron, Roberts, & Reamer, 2004), often patching together several part-time jobs in order to support their families. People living in poverty who are working part-time are more likely than people from other socioeconomic conditions to be doing so involuntarily, despite seeking full-time work (Kim, 1999).
This is an astounding display of resilience in light of the fact that working low-income people are concentrated in the lowest-paying jobs with the most negligible opportunities for advancement; in jobs that require the most intense manual labor and offer virtually no benefits, such as paid sick leave (Kim, 1999). If you are thinking, Well, then they should find better-paying jobs, consider this: more than one out of five jobs in the U.S. pays at a rate that is below the poverty threshold (Waldron et al, 2004). And prospects are growing steadily dimmer, as more and more new jobs pay a poverty-level or lower wage (Reamer et al, 2008). According to the National Employment Law Project (2011), after increased unemployment rates over the last several years, the “recovery” brought back over a million jobs, but a disproportionate number of them were low-wage jobs, which accounted for 23% of job losses prior to 2010, but nearly half of newly available jobs as of 2011. Meanwhile, less than half of the jobs the Department of Labor predicts will be added to the U.S. economy by 2018 will pay enough to keep a two-worker, two-child, family out of poverty (Wider Opportunities for Women, 2010).
Stereotype 3: Poor People Are Substance Abusers
As I mentioned earlier, low-income people in the U.S. are less likely to use or abuse alcohol than their wealthier counterparts (Galea et al, 2007; Keyes & Hasin, 2008; NSDUH, 2004). Interestingly, this pattern is consistent internationally. Around the world, alcohol use and addiction are associated positively with income; in other words, the higher somebody’s income, the more likely he is to use alcohol or to be an alcoholic (Degenhardt et al, 2008).
Patterns of alcohol use among youth are a little less definitive. Some studies suggest that, as with the broader population, alcohol consumption and addiction are positively related to income. For example, in their study of two populations of high school students, one predominantly white and economically privileged and the other predominantly African American and low-income, Kevin Chen and his colleagues (2003) found significantly higher alcohol consumption in the former than the latter. Studies by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2004) and Monitoring the Future (2008) suggest that alcohol use among youth is equally distributed across socioeconomic strata. What is certain is that alcohol use and addiction are less prevalent overall among low-income people than among their wealthier counterparts. This is particularly astounding, and an indication of tremendous resiliency among low-income communities, when we consider that alcohol abuse can be a side effect of discrimination and social deprivation, such as inequitable access to social services (Lee & Jeon, 2005).
Similarly, there is little evidence that low-income people are more likely than wealthier people to use illicit drugs. Drug use in the U.S. is distributed fairly evenly across income levels (Degenhardt et al, 2008; Saxe, et al., 2001), regardless of age and other factors. According to Monitoring the Future (2008), for instance, found that socioeconomic status does not predict rates of alcohol use and abuse among youth.
It is true, of course, that alcohol and drug abuse exist in poor communities, just as it exists in wealthier communities. It also is true that substance abuse is a serious issue that has deleterious effects on youth regardless of their socioeconomic status. I certainly am not making the point that we should not attend to drug and alcohol use among low-income people or consider how it affects students’ opportunities to achieve in school. We should. We also should realize that when these problems do exist in low-income families, they have the potential to be particularly devastating because people in poverty who are struggling with substance abuse generally do not have at their disposal the sorts of recovery opportunities available to wealthier families. Nor do they have access to preventative medical attention that might catch and treat growing dependencies before they become full-fledged addictions. This is one of many reasons to advocate for universal health care as one way to ensure equitable educational opportunity.
What we must try not to do is falsely associate drug and alcohol use and addiction with a “culture of poverty” or think of it as yet another example of why poor people are poor.
Stereotype 4: Poor People Are Linguistically Deficient and Poor Communicators
Mirroring attitudes in the broader society, many educators have been led to believe erroneously that poor people, like my Grandma, are linguistically deficient (Collins, 1988; Miller, Cho, & Bracey, 2005). This is a particularly dangerous stereotype given the extent to which students’ identities are associated with their languages (Gayles & Denerville, 2007; Grant, Oka, & Baker, 2009). Criticizing a person’s language means criticizing her or his deepest self. It can lead students targeted in this way to feel disconnected from school (Christensen, 2008).
Fortunately, there is good reason not to criticize. When teachers assume that language is a marker of intelligence, the stereotype that poor people are also language-poor negatively affects their assessments of low-income students’ performance (Grant, Oka, & Baker, 2009). This stereotype is built upon two shaky assumptions: (1) that poor children do not enter school with the volume or type of vocabulary they need to succeed (and that this is a reflection of parent disinterest in education), and (2) that the use of particular variations of English reflect inferior language capabilities.
The idea that children from low-income families enter school linguistically deprived, with smaller or less complex vocabularies than their wealthier peers, and that this condition is a result of family “cultures” that devalue learning, has become part of the “common sense” of education reform. What you might not know is that the idea that low-income students are linguistically deficient is based largely on a single study of a few dozen economically diverse families in the Kansas City area (Hart & Risley, 1995), as described in great detail by Curt Dudley-Marling and Krista Lucas (2009) in their essay, “Pathologizing the Language and Culture of Poor Children.”
Studies have shown, indeed, that low-income and working class children begin school with less-developed reading skills on average than their wealthier counterparts (Children’s Defense Fund, 2008). This initial discrepancy can foreshadow lags in reading proficiency throughout their school lives (Duncan et al, 2007). However, there is no evidence that this discrepancy in reading skills is connected to a language use deficiency or that it reflects parental disinterest in education. Similarly, based on their study involving a sample of 1,364 racially diverse public school children, Veronique Dupere and her colleagues (2010) concluded that reading score differences between low-income and wealthier students could be explained largely by discrepancies in the sorts of institutions to which they had access throughout early childhood. For example, poor and working class families, unlike many of their wealthier counterparts, rarely have access to high-quality early childhood education programs that support children’s language learning in intensive, engaging ways (Kilburn & Karoly, 2008; Temple, Reynolds, & Arteaga, 2010).
The second shaky notion, that particular variations of English reflect superior or inferior language capabilities, incorrectly assumes the existence of “superior” and “inferior” language varieties (Miller, Cho, & Bracey, 2005). Linguists roundly reject this superior/inferior dichotomy. Some call it “standard language ideology” in reference to the presumptuous and familiar term, “standard English” (Lippi-Green, 1994). According to Kathryn Woolard and Bambi Schieffelin (1994), “Moral indignation over nonstandard forms [of language] derives from ideological associations of the standard with the qualities valued within the culture, such as clarity or truthfulness” (p. 64). In fact, since at least the early 1970s linguists have bemoaned the ways in which students are taught to misunderstand the nature of language, including the false dichotomy of “correct/proper” and “incorrect/improper” language varieties (Baugh, 1983; Burling, 1973).
In linguistic reality, all variations of a language and all dialects, from what some people call “Black English Vernacular” (Gayles & Denerville, 2007) to the Appalachian English spoken by my Grandma (Luhman, 1990), are highly structured with their own sets of grammatical rules (Miller, Cho, & Bracey, 2005). These variations of English, like so-called “standard” English, are not indicators of poor intelligence or deficient cultures. Instead, they are indicators of the regional, cultural, and social contexts in which somebody learned to speak. Among linguists this is no revelation. More than 100 years of linguistic research points to the fact that all languages and language varieties are communicatively equal because they are, in their contexts, equally complex and coherent (see, for example, Boas, 1911; Chomsky, 1965; Labov, 1972; Newmeyer, 1985; Terry et al., 2010). As James Collins (1988) explains, “…languages are systems, of formidable and roughly equal complexity, whether classic ‘world languages’ or the speech of economically simple societies, whether prestige standards or stigmatized dialects” (p. 301).
Another common language stereotype is that children from poor families primarily speak with an “informal” register or style, as I might speak with my sister or a close friend, while their middle class and wealthier peers speak with a “formal” register, as I might speak during a job interview. However, like other forms of code-switching—the ways we modify behavior based on the context in which we find ourselves—all people use a broad range of language registers (Brizuela, Andersen, & Stallings, 1999; Edwards, 1976), regardless of the variety of language we speak. The false association, for instance, of middle Appalachian English with informal register mistakes “formal” ways of speaking with what we call “standard” English.
To be clear, I do not mean to suggest that students, low-income or not, do not need to learn the varieties of English that will help them gain access to the fullest range of educational and vocational opportunities. I believe, in fact, that I, as an educator, have a responsibility to help students develop a firm understanding of, and ability to use, what some people mistakenly call “standard” English. But I believe that I should do so without denigrating the language varieties spoken in students’ homes and communities and without wrongly assuming that students’ language varieties are indicators of their intelligence.
A related stereotype, and one that is featured prominently in the “culture of poverty” or “mindset of poverty” model (Payne, 2005), is that low-income people are ineffective communicators. Ruby Payne has said, and incorrectly so, that people in poverty often fight with each other because they do not have the necessary verbal communication skills to resolve conflicts. “Words are not seen as being very effective in generational poverty to resolve differences; fists are,” (2006, 3) she has written in her brief essay, “Reflections on Katrina and the Role of Poverty in the Gulf Coast Crisis.”
Contrasting this stereotype, studies have shown that low-income people communicate with the same sophistication as their wealthier peers. For example, Mary Ohmer and her colleagues (2010) studied the communication strategies used by members of a low-income, predominantly African American community who had assembled to confront a variety of neighborhood problems. They documented how people at these gatherings discussed and modeled complex communication techniques that could help them address these problems effectively with their neighbors. They talked, for instance, about using language to de-escalate conflict, being conscious of their tone of voice, and approaching their neighbors in an inviting, non-hostile manner.
Their study reminded me of the time I spent as a child with my Grandma’s peoples in the mountains of Appalachian western Maryland, where I never heard so much as a raised voice nor saw a single person lay anything other than a friendly hand on anybody else.
Stereotype 5: Poor People Are Ineffective and Inattentive Parents
In my experience, the “bad parent” stereotype is based largely on other false stereotypes, like the ones we already have debunked: poor parents don’t value education, poor parents are substance abusers, and so on. It also is based on decontextualized considerations of other sorts of evidence. For instance, when I hear that low-income children watch television and participate in other sedentary activities at higher rates than their wealthier peers, my initial reaction might be, “A-ha, further evidence that poor parents are inattentive to children’s well-being.” In order to reach that conclusion, though, I would have to ignore the fact that low-income youth have considerably less access to a whole range of after school and extracurricular activities, as well as to recreational facilities, than their wealthier peers (Macleod et al., 2008; Shann, 2001).
Researchers routinely have found that low-income parents and guardians are extremely attentive to their children’s needs despite the many barriers they must overcome to provide for their families. This is no less true for poor single mothers, who often are the most scorned targets of the “bad parent” stereotype. We already established, for instance, that poor single mothers overwhelmingly claim a sense of responsibility for inspiring their children to pursue higher education. More broadly speaking, when Robert Hawkins (2010) used a variety of qualitative research techniques to examine how 20 formerly homeless single mothers use their social networks to improve their lives, he found that they prioritized the wellbeing of their children in virtually every decision they made. He also found that they were not shy about seeking the help they needed to provide a good life for their children, even when doing so made them vulnerable or uncomfortable.
In fact, following their longitudinal study of low-income families, a follow-up to Annette Lareau’s (2000) now-famous study of how socioeconomic class affects children’s home lives, she and Elliot Weininger (2008) unequivocally denounced the “bad parent” stereotype. They concluded that “working class and poor parents are no less deeply committed … to the well being of their children than are middle class parents” (p. 142).
The Dangers of Stereotypes and Stereotype Threat
Why, you may be wondering, are we spending so much time on stereotypes? Why are we focusing on all of this negativity rather than talking about what we can do to strengthen educational opportunities for all students?
… In the end, our understandings of poverty and our attitudes toward poor families play an enormous role, and perhaps the most enormous role, in how we see and treat our low-income students (Robinson, 2007; Williams, 2009), not to mention the lengths to which we will or will not go to advocate for them and their educational rights.
The dangers of not doing so are plentiful. Stereotypes can make us unnecessarily afraid or accusatory of our own students, including our most disenfranchised students, not to mention their families. They can misguide us into expressing low expectations for poor youth and their families or to blame them for very the ways in which the barriers they face impede their abilities to engage with schools the way some of us might engage with schools.
Complicating matters, according to Claude Steele (2010), an expert on stereotyping and its dangers, people who are stereotyped are attuned to the ways in which they are stereotyped. As a result, the accuracy of a stereotype about people in poverty might be irrelevant to the toll the stereotype takes on our low-income students. He explains:
This means that whenever we’re in a situation where a bad stereotype could be applied to us—such as those about being old, poor, rich, or female—we know it. We know what ‘people could think.’ We know that anything we do that fits the stereotype could be taken as confirming it. And we know that, for that reason, we could be judged and treated accordingly. (p. 5)
The weight of this “knowing,” imagining the very possibility that somebody might target them with a stereotype, can affect students’ school performance and emotional wellbeing, as research on stereotype susceptibility and stereotype threat has demonstrated (McKown & Weinstein, 2003; Steele, 2010). Stereotype threat, according to Bettina Spencer and Emanuele Castano (2007), occurs when people who share a particular identity—race, for example, or socioeconomic status—perform below their potential on an assigned task due to fear that their performance will confirm negative stereotypes people already have about them. The stereotype threat hypothesis might sound like a far-fetched idea, particularly for those of us who never have been consistent targets of bias related race, class, gender, sexual orientation, or other identities. We might wonder how stereotypes can have such an immediate and measureable effect on students. But stereotype threat is real as evidenced by a robust and constantly growing collection of studies demonstrating its effects (Steele, 2010). Most of the researchers studying stereotype threat have focused on its effects for students of color and female students. However, stereotype threat also affects low-income students. For example, when informed that their socioeconomic status is relevant to a task they are being asked to complete, such as by being told before a test that students in poverty do not do as well on it, on average, as wealthier students, low-income students perform worse than they when nobody suggests the disparity (Spencer & Castano, 2007).
So our understandings of and attitude about people in poverty, even if we don’t believe we are applying them to individual students, have an effect on low-income students’ school performance. Stereotypes and biases matter. They matter in an extremely practical and immediate way. And no amount of resources or pedagogical strategies will help us provide the best opportunity for low-income students to reach their full potentials as learners if we do not attend, first, to the stereotypes, biases, and assumptions we have about them and their families. Our first practical task, then, is this: identify, then work on expunging, what we thought we knew about poor people if what we thought we knew paints families in poverty with broad, negative, stereotype-ridden strokes.
© The Washington Post Company
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2014 12:11 PM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie; Kelley, Kim; Mathes, Serena; Sisneros, Irene; Jewett, Donna; Martinez, Jacob; Edwards, Brian; Clark, Whitney; Olson, Joanna; Marx, Jennifer; Kerstiens, Rachel; Weber, Joe; Ortiz, Jason; Wiemers, Elizabeth; Goodteacher, Doris; White, Elisabeth; Burgio, Debbie; Davis, Samanda; David, Stephanie; Hosman, Cal; Maroncelli, Octavianne; Bamesberger, Gene; Abby Eno (abbye@youthforachange.org); Torrez-Fluent, Audrey; Albert, Chantel; Houghtaling, Dianne; Jewett, Donna; Gunderson, Jo; Mccollum, Kristi; Bennett, Kristin; Kyle, Meagan; McGuire, Michelle; Gehman, Christine; Bubes, Carol; 'DDES'; Meunier, Amelia; Crookston, Will; Brandhorst, Trevon; King, Karleigh; Ubaldo, Myrna; Moran, Santa; Corona Horta, Maria Del Rosario; Gebre, Shams; Hickman, April; Cueto, Alvaro; Wilcox, Maria; Montoya, Abbe; Sullivan, Amanda; Schirm, Amy; Manteris, Elyse; Hernandez, Jose; Tafoya, Francine; Overcash, Elise; Glaude, Jordan; O'Driscoll, Leo; McGuire, Rose Marie; Ortega, Ana; anam@youthforachange.org; Daw, Molly; Onan, Stephanie; Palma, Denise; Palmer, Jai; Dennis, Sherry; Hall-Jones, Lynette; Perez, Nadine; Jimenez, Angelica; Josh Theisen (josht@landscape5280.com); Albrechta, Alison; 'powellba@icloud.com'; Becker, Theresa; Battle, Elizabeth; Hernandez, Nefi; Greer, Eldridge; Vafeades, Shaunay; McClanahan (Hughes), Lauren; Na, Angrith; Bruning, Renae; rbruning@denverscholarship.org; +Counselors, High Schools
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of January 27-31- "FAFSA Season of Hope for our Unaccompanied Youth"
 
All- Did you know that EOP has identified 1,672 students experiencing homeless to date this year.
95 of these students are unaccompanied youth:
 
Who are Unaccompanied Homeless Youth? Unaccompanied homeless youth are young people who lack safe, stable housing and who are not in the care of a parent or guardian. They may have run away from home or been forced to leave by their parents. Unaccompanied youth live in a variety of temporary situations, including shelters, the homes of friends or relatives, cars, campgrounds, public parks, abandoned buildings, motels, and bus or train stations.
 
Between 1.6 and 1.7 million youth run away from their homes each year. [i] Generally, youth leave home due to severe dysfunction in their families, including circumstances that put their safety and well-being at risk. Unfortunately, physical and sexual abuse in the home is common; studies of unaccompanied youth have found that 20 to 50% were sexually abused in their homes, while 40 to 60% were physically abused. [ii] Unaccompanied youth do not receive financial support from their parents and do not have access to parental information.
 
Currently 78 of these students are seniors or enrolled in a DPS GED program. These remarkable students are overcoming incredible barriers every day and through the support of the DPS community are getting closer to graduation!
 
What About College? Can Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Apply for Federal Financial Aid?
 

Yes. Due to their severe poverty, homeless unaccompanied youth are extremely unlikely to be able to access postsecondary education without federal student aid. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the federal application form that students must complete in order to apply for virtually all types of financial aid: Pell Grants, State Grants, Institutional Grants, Tuition Waivers, Work Study, and Loans. The FAFSA requires all students not considered “independent” to provide financial information from their parents or guardians in order to determine student eligibility for aid; the application also requires a parental/guardian signature. While these requirements are logical for most applicants, they created an insurmountable barrier for unaccompanied homeless youth, who do not receive financial support from their parents and do not have access to parental information.

 
A recent federal law eliminated this barrier for unaccompanied youth applying for aid for the 2009-2010 school year and future years. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-84) expanded the definition of “independent student” to include: (1) unaccompanied homeless youth; (2) youth who are in foster care at any time after the age of 13 or older, and; (3) youth who are emancipated minors or are in legal guardianships as determined by an appropriate court in the individual's state of residence. Therefore, those youth can apply for federal aid without parental information or signature.
 
The legislation requires youth to be verified as unaccompanied and homeless during the school year in which they apply for aid, or as unaccompanied, at risk of homelessness, and self-supporting. Verification must be made by one of the following: (1) a McKinney-Vento Act school district liaison[1]; (2) a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development homeless assistance program director or their designee; (3) a Runaway and Homeless Youth Act program director or their designee, or; (4) a financial aid administrator. The law thus helps to remove barriers to accessing financial aid for unaccompanied youth in the year in which they experienced homelessness, and in subsequent years, provided they are still unaccompanied, self-supporting, and at risk of homelessness.
 
Please contact us to identify an unaccompanied youth and request a McKinney-Vento verification letter for FAFSA Application purposes! Help us make the dream of higher education a reality for our amazing youth!
 
Sincerely,
EOP
 
Anna Theisen | Homeless Liaison
Educational Outreach Program, Denver Public Schools
1330 Fox Street, 3rd Floor North | Denver, CO  80204
Ph 720.423.8230 | Fax 720.423.8242 | * Anna_Theisen@dpsk12.org   Website : http://eop.dpsk12.org
     I play for DPS!
“We cannot ignore poverty. It comes to school with our students and follows them home. Our goal is to address the barriers of poverty and work together to improve educational outcomes”. – Dr. Donna Beegle
NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review, distribute, or copy the message. Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 2:28 PM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie; Kelley, Kim; Mathes, Serena; Sisneros, Irene; Jewett, Donna; Martinez, Jacob; Edwards, Brian; Clark, Whitney; Olson, Joanna; Marx, Jennifer; Kerstiens, Rachel; Weber, Joe; Ortiz, Jason; Wiemers, Elizabeth; Goodteacher, Doris; White, Elisabeth; Burgio, Debbie; Davis, Samanda; David, Stephanie; Hosman, Cal; Maroncelli, Octavianne; Bamesberger, Gene; Abby Eno (abbye@youthforachange.org); Torrez-Fluent, Audrey; Albert, Chantel; Houghtaling, Dianne; Jewett, Donna; Gunderson, Jo; Mccollum, Kristi; Bennett, Kristin; Kyle, Meagan; McGuire, Michelle; Gehman, Christine; Bubes, Carol; 'DDES'; Meunier, Amelia; Crookston, Will; Brandhorst, Trevon; King, Karleigh; Ubaldo, Myrna; Moran, Santa; Corona Horta, Maria Del Rosario; Gebre, Shams; Hickman, April; Cueto, Alvaro; Wilcox, Maria; Montoya, Abbe; Sullivan, Amanda; Schirm, Amy; Manteris, Elyse; Hernandez, Jose; Tafoya, Francine; Overcash, Elise; Glaude, Jordan; O'Driscoll, Leo; McGuire, Rose Marie; Ortega, Ana; anam@youthforachange.org; Daw, Molly; Onan, Stephanie; Palma, Denise; Palmer, Jai; Dennis, Sherry; Hall-Jones, Lynette; Perez, Nadine; Jimenez, Angelica; Josh Theisen (josht@landscape5280.com); Albrechta, Alison; 'powellba@icloud.com'; Becker, Theresa; Battle, Elizabeth; Hernandez, Nefi; Greer, Eldridge; Vafeades, Shaunay; McClanahan (Hughes), Lauren
Cc: Gonzales, Sharon (Service)
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of January 6-19 "New Year Call to Action"
 
Happy 2014! We hope that everyone had a restful and rejuvenating break. Our team has a welcomed the new year with a renewed focus and intensity on our fight against the evil villain that is poverty. We are dedicated to eliminating educational barriers for students experiencing homelessness in DPS and we thank you for referring students and families to us each and everyday.
We are in the midst of securing our collaboration with Revolution Foods to begin an evening supper/tutoring program at George Washington High School. This program will provide evening meals and extra academic support to over 70 students experiencing homelessness at GW!
We also would like you welcome our new DU School of Social Work Intern- Brian Powell. Brian will be working with Dorothy to support our high school students. Welcome Brian!
We are also very grateful to employees at 900 Grant for donating over 100 new coats, hats gloves and gift cards for new snow boots to our students. THANK YOU!
This week’s article provides the reality of where we are at as a nation in eradicating poverty. I think that as a Denver community are making great strides; like supporting and expanding pre-school spaces for our most at-risk students. However, we still have a long way to go. We estimate that 1 in 38 DPS students will experience homelessness at any-given time during the year. So.. here is to an impactful NEW year of breaking barriers for our students! Let’s do this!
Children Still Left Behind 50 Years After War on Poverty
1/8/2014
Zakia Redd, Child Trends senior research scientist
Fifty years after the War on Poverty was initiated, the youngest Americans continue to be our nation’s poorest. In 2012, more than one in five children (22 percent) lived in poverty, compared with 14 percent of adults ages 18-64, and 9 percent of adults ages 65 and older.
While child poverty rates for children have fluctuated since the 1964 rate of 23 percent, today they are nearly as high as they were 50 years ago. In 2012 (the most recent data available), nearly one in 10 children lived in extreme poverty, defined as having a household income less than half of the poverty threshold (currently $23,550 for a family of four). Poverty is even more prevalent among children under five: one in four in 2012, as noted in Child Trends’ recent report on America’s infants and toddlers.
These wearying facts have been recited many times, but given all we know about the detrimental and long-lasting effects of poverty on children, they bear repeating. Research finds that poverty experienced early in life, sustained poverty, and extreme poverty are associated with particularly negative outcomes for children. That so many children experience poverty in their earliest years, the most rapid period of brain development, is especially troubling. Children growing up in poor households are more likely to be unhealthy, drop out of school, have chronic health problems as adults, and earn lower wages than those not poor during childhood.
As we noted in a 2009 Child Trends brief, childhood poverty saps our economy by reducing productivity and output, increasing rates of crime, and adding to health expenses. Given its importance, how can we reduce poverty among children? Safety-net and tax subsidy programs have been effective. For instance, Census Bureau analyses of the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for tax subsidies, in-kind benefits, and out-of-pocket expenses, found that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly referred to as SNAP or Food Stamps), reduced the child poverty rate by three percentage points.
Poverty rates are highest among children born to young parents , particularly those with low levels of education. Efforts to delay childbearing should be considered a poverty prevention strategy. Teenagers and young adults would benefit from additional time to complete schooling, gain work experience, and build their earnings capacity, before taking on parental responsibilities.
In addition to prevention efforts, policymakers might invest in programs that promote children’s cognitive, social, and physical development, which may help to buffer some of poverty’s negative effects. Ensuring that poor children and their families have access to high-quality early childhood programs, home visiting programs, SNAP, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and other effective programs could go a long way toward reducing poverty and minimizing income inequality. According to Child Care Aware of America, costs for full-time center care for a four-year-old, compared to the poverty level for a family of three, account for anywhere between 25 and 86 percent of family income, depending on the state.
Fifty years ago, President Johnson, in declaring the war on poverty, called on Americans to “replace despair with opportunity.” Breaking the poverty cycle is critical to providing every child the opportunity to succeed in school, work, and life. Our country’s long term economic success depends on a healthy and well-trained and well-educated workforce.
This originally appeared on Child Trends' blog. For additional resources click here.
 
EOP is currently located at Fox St. and will not be moving to1860 Lincoln St (new DPS Administrative building). Our team is actively seeking a new location that will best meet the needs of our students and families.  If you have a classroom/office space available in your school/agency and would like to house our team please contact me. Our vision is to create a safe, confidential, welcome center for homeless families. Thank you!
Sincerely,
EOP
 
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of December 9-13 "Collaboration"
 
All- This week has been a very busy one for EOP. We have been receiving calls daily from families looking for shelter and with the extreme cold the safety of our children and parents is of high concern. It is a very hard time of year with many of the area shelters full. Please encourage families to continue to call each shelter daily as turnover occurs (attached resource guide) and at http://denversroadhome.org/homeless.php
 
Denver has a cold weather care plan for families unable to get into a shelter if the temperature drops below 30 degrees; the Samaritan House: 2301 Lawrence St. will open its’ conference room and provide cots and bedding for the night. Families can also go to the Comitis Crisis Center 9840 E 17th Ave, Aurora · (303) 343-9890  in Aurora as another overflow option or go to the Denver Police Department at 13 th and Cherokee to get a one-time emergency motel voucher after 8 p.m.
 
We had a wonderful time this week at the annual Hispanic Contractors of Colorado dessert auction for EOP on 12/11/13. We were honored to hear the amazing stories of two student’s we have had the privilege to work with. The students shared what education has meant to them and how the support of our community helps  them to be able to attend school successfully. We are so thankful to the HCC members for their generosity and know that the funds will be put to very good use. THANK YOU!!
 
Fact of the week:
One in five American children is now living in poverty, giving the United States the highest child poverty rate of any developed nation except for Romania.
 
The NY Times recently did a 5 part article on a 11-year-old homeless girl living in NY.
Invisible Child – Girls in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1
 
Sincerely,
EOP
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 11:47 AM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie; Kelley, Kim; Mathes, Serena; Sisneros, Irene; Jewett, Donna; Martinez, Jacob; Edwards, Brian; Clark, Whitney; Olson, Joanna; Marx, Jennifer; Kerstiens, Rachel; Weber, Joe; Ortiz, Jason; Wiemers, Elizabeth; Goodteacher, Doris; White, Elisabeth; Burgio, Debbie; Davis, Samanda; David, Stephanie; Hosman, Cal; Maroncelli, Octavianne; Bamesberger, Gene; Abby Eno (abbye@youthforachange.org); Torrez-Fluent, Audrey; Albert, Chantel; Houghtaling, Dianne; Jewett, Donna; Gunderson, Jo; Mccollum, Kristi; Bennett, Kristin; Kyle, Meagan; McGuire, Michelle; Gehman, Christine; Bubes, Carol; 'DDES'; Meunier, Amelia; Crookston, Will; Brandhorst, Trevon; King, Karleigh; Ubaldo, Myrna; Moran, Santa; Corona Horta, Maria Del Rosario; Gebre, Shams; Hickman, April; Cueto, Alvaro; Wilcox, Maria; Montoya, Abbe; Sullivan, Amanda; Schirm, Amy; Manteris, Elyse; Hernandez, Jose; Tafoya, Francine; Overcash, Elise; Glaude, Jordan; O'Driscoll, Leo; McGuire, Rose Marie; Ortega, Ana; anam@youthforachange.org; Daw, Molly; Onan, Stephanie; Palma, Denise; Palmer, Jai; Dennis, Sherry; Hall-Jones, Lynette; Perez, Nadine; Jimenez, Angelica; Josh Theisen (josht@landscape5280.com)
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of December 2-6 "Understanding"
 
All- We hope that you had a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving holiday break. We are teaming up with DPS Central Support to provide warm clothing to our students! A huge thank you in advance to our colleagues for their sincere generosity!
A Giving Tree for Homeless DPS Students
One in 37 of our kids will experience homelessness at some point during this school year. For these students, “home” might be a shelter, motel or even a car, and many don’t have basic school supplies. Currently, more than 1,400 of these kids are seeking assistance through the DPS Educational Outreach Department – which aims to provide the support and necessary items to homeless students so they can attend school successfully.
 
In order to support this year’s overwhelming need for warm clothing, we have once again teamed with Educational Outreach to help our kids receive the winter clothing items they need through a holiday drive. Starting Dec. 2, a giving tree – located in the 900 Grant St. lobby – will be decorated with ornaments representing a DPS student in need. These ornaments will be labeled with the child’s gender, grade level and wish item. Those interested in participating can simply pick an ornament from the tree and purchase a new coat, hat and gloves, or gift card to a shoe store for that child. Participants can pick out one ornament – or as many as they choose – at any time and purchase the wish item.
 
On Wednesday, Dec. 18, between noon and 3 p.m., those who purchase an item for our kids should bring the gift and the original ornament to the 900 Grant St. lobby for a drop-off celebration. During this time, you will have the opportunity to wrap your gifts and create a handmade card for your sponsored student before giving them to the Educational Outreach team to distribute to our kids in need.
 
If you are unable to pick up an ornament because you are not located at 900 Grant St. building, or if you have any questions, please email office_communications@dpsk12.org.
 
This week’s article is an eye-opener and helps us understand the barrier poverty presents to planning and decision making for individuals. I hope that it will create a space of understanding.  Thank you Cal for sharing!
 
Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions
Read More:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/your-brain-on-poverty-why-poor-people-seem-to-make-bad-decisions/281780/
 
Dr. Beegle bite of the week:
“ I had no idea how much of my brain power and my energy were devoted to crisis needs until some of those needs were met."
 
Many of you had inquired about bringing Poverty 101 to your team or building. EOP is working on capacity building to accommodate these requests and will keep you updated. Our next district-wide Poverty 101 Seminar will be on Monday, April 7th so please mark your calendars and share! J
 
Wishing you all a wonderful and inspired week!
 
Sincerely,
EOP
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 1:35 PM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie; Kelley, Kim; Mathes, Serena; Sisneros, Irene; Jewett, Donna; Martinez, Jacob; Edwards, Brian; Clark, Whitney; Olson, Joanna; Marx, Jennifer; Kerstiens, Rachel; Weber, Joe; Ortiz, Jason; Wiemers, Elizabeth; Goodteacher, Doris; White, Elisabeth; Burgio, Debbie; Davis, Samanda; David, Stephanie; Hosman, Cal; Maroncelli, Octavianne; Bamesberger, Gene; Abby Eno (abbye@youthforachange.org); Torrez-Fluent, Audrey; Albert, Chantel; Houghtaling, Dianne; Jewett, Donna; Gunderson, Jo; Mccollum, Kristi; Bennett, Kristin; Kyle, Meagan; McGuire, Michelle; Gehman, Christine; Bubes, Carol; 'DDES'; Meunier, Amelia; Crookston, Will; Brandhorst, Trevon; King, Karleigh; Ubaldo, Myrna; Moran, Santa; Corona Horta, Maria Del Rosario; Gebre, Shams; Hickman, April; Cueto, Alvaro; Wilcox, Maria; Montoya, Abbe; Sullivan, Amanda; Schirm, Amy; Manteris, Elyse; Hernandez, Jose; Tafoya, Francine; Overcash, Elise; Glaude, Jordan; O'Driscoll, Leo; McGuire, Rose Marie; Ortega, Ana; anam@youthforachange.org; Daw, Molly; Onan, Stephanie; Palma, Denise; Palmer, Jai; Dennis, Sherry; Hall-Jones, Lynette; Perez, Nadine; Jimenez, Angelica
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of November 18-22 "Thanksgiving"
 
Hi all- Since we are approaching Thanksgiving week I wanted my poverty 101 email to reflect on this topic. No matter what religion or beliefs we have I think we can all agree on the importance of “Gratitude.” For me gratitude is taking the time to find happiness in life. Even in the hardest times you can find one thing to be grateful for. In the work we do in DPS there are many times that we probably don’t embrace the thankfulness in our employment. We all come across families in such sad situations and it stays with us. We may come across families that don’t express gratitude for the assistance we provide them. We may from time to time feel as our colleagues don’t thank us for all we do.  It is important that we all reflect on these things and remind ourselves why we do this work. We do it to make a difference for kids. We do it because we have special talents and abilities to help people in crisis. We do it because we believe that families need basic needs met to function. We know it is the right thing to do and we ask ourselves “If not me, then who?”
 
Thankfulness in employment can be something we take for granted. How many times have we said “I can’t wait until Friday?” I am guilty of using that sentence. When I stop myself though and think about those words I get angry at myself. I think of all the parents we work with that cannot find a job. I think of the stories on the news in which people have been trying to secure employment for months or years. I recently have begun to think about our parents with mental illness or disabilities that do not allow them to work. I have a mom I am working with that cried last week because she doesn’t have a job to go to. She has sleep apnea that is not under control so she cannot hold down a job successfully.  I have another parent that couldn’t find work for a year. She is now the overnight custodian at Denver University. She is in love with her job! She has to leave her 2 small children overnight in daycare and sneak in time with them during the day when she should be sleeping. She says it will be worth it in the end because they will have their own place and she will begin college at DU next year since she is an employee. Talk about rejoicing in your employment! She is an inspiration to me.
 
I hope as our work continues to be too busy or even if resources are dwindling that we stay in a place of gratitude for our employment. We can be the cheerleaders and role models for our families. We can be the kind person they meet with that day. We can be the helpful person, the good listener, the one that doesn’t give up. I remind myself a quote I heard many years ago
 
“You might meet a student or parent for 1 day, 1 month or 1 year. What do you want to leave them with?”
 
Theme for the week: Employment- Attached are some resources for job assistance. Please share with any parents you feel could use the information.
Fact- Two-thirds of all individuals living in poverty are working 1.7 jobs. Workforce Centers provide excellent training opportunities to help folks find employment that actually pays a livable wage.
 
I hope in this season of thanksgiving you feel hopeful, re-energized, and know how much your work is appreciated. Take care- Jackie
 
Jackie Bell l Educational Outreach Program, Homeless Liaison
Ph: 720.423.8228 l Fax: 720.423.8242 l Website:  http://eop.dpsk12.org
“I Play for Team DPS”
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review,distribute, or copy the message.  Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
 
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of November 11-15
 
Hi All- A huge thank you to those who attended our Poverty 101 Seminar on Tuesday! It was a really impactful time for us and loved all of your comments and dialogue. We are so thankful to have this partnership and support to fight the evil villain that is poverty.
 
This weeks’ article ( link below)  helps us to externalize poverty and poses  a really important thought:
In short, if we were serious about education, then our education discussion wouldn't be focused on demonizing teachers and coming up with radical schemes to undermine traditional public schools. It would instead be focused on mounting a new war on poverty and thus directly addressing the biggest education problem of all.
 
http://inthesetimes.com/article/15849/teachers_were_never_the_problem/
 
Important Beegle bite of the week:
1.       My parents never went to school conferences. Their behavior was often interpreted as "uncaring." Today, I continue to hear people attribute motives such as "they do not care about their kids" or even, "they do not love their children" as reasons why parents living in crisis often do not make school conferences. In my poverty trainings, I share that my Mom would say, "I ain't going in there and make a fool of myself. Those people want to talk about school and I don't know anything about school." School was not a place where she felt comfortable or that she belonged. Her attendance at school conferences had nothing to do with how much she loved and cared for her six kids. Here are some other researched reasons that parents in poverty may not attend school meetings: "Low-income parents and guardians experience significant class-specific barriers to school involvement. These include consequences associated with the scarcity of living wage jobs, such as the ability to afford childcare or public transportation or the ability to afford to take time off from wage work." (Bower & Griffin, 2011; Li, 2010).

Designing schools for the students and families who live in crisis requires understanding and knowing their environments. It requires meeting the parents where they are, not where we want them to be. To engage parents in crisis, we have to consider their environments and what is going on their daily lives. We need to reach out and build relationships and ask, "What we educators can do to help their children succeed." We can ask parents in what ways they would like to be connected to their kids' schools. In my research with parents, many want to get to know their child's teachers, but they want it to be in a less intimidating way. Some suggested school carnivals and opportunities to "have fun" while getting to know the teachers. In addition to creative opportunities to connect parents in poverty with educators, trust can be built when educators connect families to local resources that can alleviate the impacts of poverty on families and allow the luxury to be engaged. One school principal I worked with told 150 parents, "If anything is in the way of your children coming to school, come see me. I have lived in this community 35 years and know a lot of people. if you are having trouble paying your electric or water come see me. I know people at the electric company and the water company and I will try to help. I believe in your children and want to help them be successful."

I was so proud to know him!
Any situation can be defined in any number of ways...depending upon your world view: "Whereas a more well-to-do parent or guardian might be pardoned for missing structured opportunities for family involvement—she’s traveling for work—a low-income parent or guardian’s lack of this sort of involvement might be interpreted as additional evidence of disinterest in her or his child’s schooling." (Pattereson, Hale, & Stessman, 2007).
 
Thank you!
EOP
 
 
Anna Theisen | Homeless Liaison
Educational Outreach Program, Denver Public Schools
1330 Fox Street, 3rd Floor North | Denver, CO  80204
Ph 720.423.8230 | Fax 720.423.8242 | * Anna_Theisen@dpsk12.org   Website : http://eop.dpsk12.org
     I play for DPS!
“We cannot ignore poverty. It comes to school with our students and follows them home. Our goal is to address the barriers of poverty and work together to improve educational outcomes”. – Dr. Donna Beegle
NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review, distribute, or copy the message. Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 1:51 PM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie; Kelley, Kim; Mathes, Serena; Sisneros, Irene; Jewett, Donna; Martinez, Jacob; Edwards, Brian; Clark, Whitney; Olson, Joanna; Marx, Jennifer; Kerstiens, Rachel; Weber, Joe; Ortiz, Jason; Wiemers, Elizabeth; Goodteacher, Doris; White, Elisabeth; Burgio, Debbie; Davis, Samanda; David, Stephanie
Cc: 'Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver'
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of October 14th - Who Needs Robin Hood When We Have Each Other?
 
Hi All- This week’s email is about people helping one another. There is a Dr. Beegle quote that says “Poverty teaches people that nobody cares, there is no one to help, and we don’t belong.” When I really read this concept is makes me sad to think people feel this way because their perception and experiences with society probably reiterates this for them.
 
I want to introduce a family and a business that challenges this idea here in Denver. They are the Salis family and they own Great Harvest Bread Company (GHB). They do a yearly fundraiser for the EOP students and families in DPS. They have been doing this for us for many years. When it first started, Matt Salis would dress up at Colonel Wheat to promote healthy eating in schools and advertise the fundraiser. One year he even let EOP staff help out to make and sell the bread!  The event has changed over the years and GHB has adapted to the growing needs of EOP. In recent years, they have donated the entire SALES from a day of business! They give us every penny! As you can imagine, we feel so lucky to be the recipients of this great outreach!
 
Today, I opened my email and received the message below from Matt. Please take the time to read what he wrote. I read this email with tears streaming down my face because he thinks EOP is changing lives. After reading his email I think you will agree that he is the one changing lives.
 
Who Needs Robin Hood When We Have Each Other?
October 17, 2013                  Matt Salis - Owner, Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver
 
There is a lot of talk these days about wealth redistribution.  Even without the noble cause of fighting a tyrannical king there is still a large segment of our population that believes there is justice in taking from the rich and giving to the poor.  Equal opportunity no longer seems to be enough for some.  Sharing of the wealth without acknowledgement or reward for the hard work and ingenuity it took to earn the wealth is a popular sentiment.  As I have shared before, I am a capitalist and thus believe in the free market economy that made this country great.  As the American spirit shifts from holding hard work and independence in high regard to an economic theory of spreading it around and spending money we do not have, I cannot help but worry…about my friends, my family and my neighbors.  Maybe we are on the right path.  What if we are not?  Seventeen trillion dollars seems like a big hole to me, but I admit that I do not have a degree in economics.  Maybe I am wrong.  What if I’m not?  There has to be another way.
 
After reading that opening paragraph, you surely are feeling one of three ways.  Maybe you agree with the path our government is on and thus probably include me in the category of the greedy and the selfish.  I am surrounded by that sentiment, so I understand your feelings.  Part of me wishes that an economic theory not of equal opportunity but of equal distribution would work.  History shows that it does not because it lacks incentive for creativity and entrepreneurship.  Maybe you agree with me and are excited to read where on earth I am going with this.  Perhaps you are not following what I am saying.  If that is the case, I am a little bit jealous because you must not waste the time I do watching the talking heads on cable news.  In any event, I hope you will continue reading because I am going to tell you what we all have in common, and why I believe there is a better way.
 
Like most of you, my wife, Sheri, and I have causes that are near to our hearts.  With four small children attending Denver public schools, we see first-hand and daily the impact of education.  It is much more than just 2+2=4 or learning to read and write.  Interacting with teachers and other students teaches kids respect, tolerance, pride, communication, the value of hard work and the need to help each other.  Public school education is a place where we have spent a lot of energy and a cause we try to champion in our community.
 
On October 5 th, the Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver held our eighth annual Whole Grains for Growing Brains fundraiser.  We donated 100% of our sales from that day to the Denver Public Schools Educational Outreach Program (EOP).  Jackie and Anna from the EOP spend all of their working time trying to help homeless kids in the Denver Public Schools.  They track students without a permanent home as they bounce from homeless shelter to homeless shelter.  They help them with food, clothes and other essentials, and they try to keep them enrolled and attending the same schools throughout the school year.  In order to accomplish this last goal, city bus vouchers for transportation across Denver are required.  Much of the money raised by Whole Grains for Growing Brains is used to transport our community’s homeless children to and from school throughout the year.  As you can imagine, Jackie and Anna are my heroes.  They work tirelessly to help Denver’s kids have a chance at that equal opportunity I mentioned above.  In spite of the hardships they witness on a daily basis, they do it all with smiles on their faces.
 
While we are all grateful for the work Jackie and Anna do, they want to thank you for your support.  Sheri and I also thank you.  I am not writing about Whole Grains for Growing Brains so I can pat myself on the back.  I am sharing the details of this day with you to demonstrate what a community of caring and generous although hardworking and independent people can do when they join together to make a difference.  All Sheri and I did was get the ball rolling.  We threw in a few hundred dollars of ingredients and labor, and you turning it into a few thousand dollars to help homeless students in our community.  It seems we have all of this baking equipment, a hard working crew and a pretty solid retail storefront at our disposal.  We are blessed with these assets that our community is able to use to make a mountain out of a mole hill (in a good way…a mountain of cash out of a mole hill of pennies).
 
Some of our customers supported Whole Grains for Growing Brains 2013 accidentally.  It was Saturday.  Saturday is bread buying day.  Oops, they helped a great cause.  Far more of you made a special effort to buy something that is, by the way, really healthy and delicious knowing full well that you were doing your part to raise over $3,400 for homeless kids in our community.  Great job!  Thank you for being a part of the solution!  Jackie and Anna want me to extend a virtual hug to you.  Thank you.
 
Sheri and I sacrifice a little.  You sacrifice a little.  We all sacrifice together, and the outcome is a lot of income…for helpless children who struggle to survive right here in our community.  That should make you feel good.  It always makes me feel great.  The great comes not from the money.  It is from the feeling of community…the working together.  People who loved my opening paragraph helped.  People who hated my opening paragraph helped.  People who were confused by my opening paragraph – yep – they helped too!
 
The government played a part in this day too.  The state and city took sales tax out of our fundraising efforts.  They were both joined by the feds in requiring that we pay the employer’s portion of income taxes for our crew who worked that day.  Government is always there to reach into the cookie jar.  They do not care if a hard-working couple is trying to employ neighbors and feed four children or if we are raising money for a higher cause.  The government’s hand is an equal opportunity money grab.  While I wish it was not so, at least they serve to prove my point.  The point is that there is a better way.
 
Neighbors helping neighbors.  Generous kid lovers right here in our town come together to give what they can.  That is a beautiful thing to see.  I am sure some of us could give a little more, but the marble floors of the capital building need a fresh coat of wax…so generosity will have to give way to wasted tax payments.  Maybe next time a dollar earned locally can be donated locally at the discretion of the dollar earner.  For now, our generation’s version of Robin Hood is here to take from those who generate income which keeps the economy moving and use the loot to buy barricades to keep war heroes from visiting open air memorials.  I am not a fan of government mandated redistribution, but maybe it would be a little more tolerable if it were not being conducted by a bunch of politically motivated incompetent nincompoops.
 
Here in Denver, we had it right at least for one day in October.  Friends told friends about a fundraiser at the local neighborhood bakery.  A community came out to turn wheat, honey, water, yeast and salt into $3,400 dollars for homeless kids.  I watched you fill our lobby and empty our bread racks for hours.  I noticed smiles on your faces and a warmth in your hearts.  I did not notice who was leaning to the left, nor did I notice who was leaning to the right.  What I saw was a community of neighbors standing tall and straight together.  The homeless students are surely thankful.  Jackie and Anna are thankful.  Sheri and I are thankful and are very proud to call you supporters of the Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver!
 
Can you believe his kind words? My response went a little something like this:
We knew many years ago how lucky EOP was when our paths crossed with you. You and Sheri have had this beautiful way about you and you truly give from your hearts. Some people that donate to EOP (as kind as they are) put a lot of attachments on the gifts they give us. They can have preconceived judgments about EOP students and families at times. You and Sheri have always made EOP and our families feel so special. This email is such an example of that.  You and Sheri have affected our program is such a way that leaves us speechless. EOP is better because of your support. EOP is stronger and able to serve more children every year because of GHB. Our students and their parents have less worries about school fees, daily needs, and uniforms because of the funds you provide us.
 
We thank you for being our constant. We thank you for supporting and serving the most vulnerable students in DPS. We thank you and Sheri for caring about the work we do and helping us support our mission of using education to break the cycle of poverty.
 
For further information on GHB:
 
Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver
765 South Colorado Boulevard, Denver, Colorado 80246
303-778-8877              denver@greatharvest.com              greatharvestdenver.com
Monday - Saturday 6:00am - 6:30pm, Closed Sunday
 
In closing, my hope for people in poverty is to have more exposure to the Salis’ of the world. That they have experiences in which people do care, do help and they feel they belong. Thanks for your time- Jackie
 
The attachment are resources for Thanksgiving. Also, Revolution Foods delivers high qualify suppers to miscellaneous sites through a partnership with the mayor’s office. If you have students in need of dinner please contact the site directly for the specifics.
 
Sincerely,
Jackie
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2013 3:39 PM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of October 7-11
 
Hello! Below are the links to two wonderful articles that offer REAL solutions to poverty. Please read when you have a moment. I am looking forward to a wonderful meeting tomorrow with the East HS Cultural Responsiveness Group. Thank you for inviting me and your courage to address poverty barriers and create the kind of supportive school community where all kids can succeed!
 
Also, thank you to those of you who made it out to the Great Harvest Bread Co. for eighth annual Whole Grains for Growing Brains fundraising for EOP. We were able to raise $3,347! 100% of these funds will go to support our DPS students without homes.
 
Please share the attached invitation to the second EOP Poverty 101 Training. It will be held on November 12, 2013. Space is limited so please RSVP as soon as possible.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
 
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/index.ssf/2013/10/david_sarasohn_across_boundari.html
 
We sincerely wish you all an amazing and inspired week!
 
Anna
 
Anna Theisen | Homeless Liaison
Educational Outreach Program, Denver Public Schools
1330 Fox Street, 3rd Floor North | Denver, CO  80204
Ph 720.423.8230 | Fax 720.423.8242 | * Anna_Theisen@dpsk12.org   Website : http://eop.dpsk12.org
     I play for DPS!
“We cannot ignore poverty. It comes to school with our students and follows them home. Our goal is to address the barriers of poverty and work together to improve educational outcomes”. – Dr. Donna Beegle
NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review, distribute, or copy the message. Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
 
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 11:00 AM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of September 30th
 
Hello- This week’s email comes from our EOP team member Dorothy Leyba. Dorothy is working with our identified middle and high school students. She is currently out meeting with all of our 9th graders (over 80 students) in almost every DPS HS program. Her goal is to meet with each of them by October 21 st to provide one on one mentoring support. WOW! Thank you Dorothy for working to break poverty barriers for our most at-risk students!
 
Hidden rules among classes
 
According to researcher Ruby Payne of Texas, the rich, the middle class and those living in poverty each have a unique set of hidden rules. These rules guide everyday behavior, form the basis for decisions and determine membership in one of the three economic classes. Payne, a professional educator and author of the book A Framework for Understanding Poverty, has spent several years sharing her insights about the cultures of poverty, middle-class and wealth. Briefly, she suggests that each culture teaches a unique set of hidden rules to its members and, while the rules are unspoken, they form a handbook for behavior within the group.
 
 
Poverty
Middle Class
Wealth
POSSESIONS
People
Things
On-of-a-kind objects, legacies, pedigrees
MONEY
To be used, spent.
To be managed.
To be conserved, invested.
PERSONALITY
Is for entertainment. Sense of humor is highly valued.
Is for acquisition and stability. Achievement is highly valued.
Is for connections. Financial, political, social connections are highly valued.
SOCIAL EMPHASIS
Social inclusion of people he/she likes
Emphasis is on self-governance and self-sufficiency.
Emphasis on social exclusion
FOOD
Key question: Do you have enough? Quantity important
Key Question: Do you like it? Quality important
Key question: Was it presented well? Presentation important
CLOTHING
Clothing valued for individual style and expression of personality
Clothing valued for its quality and acceptance into norm of middle class. Labe important.
Clothing valued for its artistic sense and expression. Designer important
TIME
Present most important. Decisions made for moment based on feelings of survival.
Future most important. Decisions made against future ramifications.
Traditions and history most important. Decisions made partially based of tradition and decorum.
EDUCATION
Valued and revered as abstract but not as reality
Crucial for climbing success ladder and making money
Necessary tradition for making and maintaining connections.
DESTINY
Believes In fate, Cannot do much to mitigate chance.
Believes in choice. Can change future with good choices now.
Noblesse oblige.
LANGUAGE
Casual register. Language is about survival.
Formal register. Language is about negotiation.
Formal register. Language is about networking.
FAMILY STRUCTURE
Tends to be matriarchal
Tends to be patriarchal
Depends on who has money.
WORLD VIEW
See world in terms of local settings.
Sees world in terms of national setting.
Sees world in terms of international view.
 
LOVE
Love and acceptance conditional, based upon whether individual is liked.
Love and acceptance conditional and based largely upon achievement.
Love and acceptance conditional and related to social standing and connections.
DRIVING FORCES
Survival, relationships, entertainment.
Work, achievement
Financial, political, social connections.
HUMOR
About people and sex
About situations
About social faux pas
 
Bases on this rubric, hidden rules have to do with attitudes about money, relationships, education, possessions and more. Basically, the driving forces for those living in poverty are survival, relationships and entertainment. That's why, according to this chart,  a person living in poverty is more likely to spend a financial windfall on concert tickets or a big- screen television than on saving for a rainy day. Also, agreeing to this chart, middle-class people are driven by achievement and work and because they feel they must manage their money, a financial windfall might go into a child's college fund.  Whereas, those living in wealth are driven by political, social and financial connections and might be likely to re-invest any additional money.
 
It's important to remember that knowledge of the hidden rules of each class forms a basis for understanding people. An understanding of the hidden rules gives people a way to identify and resolve problems at home with family member, co-workers and employees, customers and clients, and in the community itself.  People in middle class need to know the hidden rules in order to make the transition to greater stability themselves and to assist people in poverty. Access to new situations and people adds up to more influence and power. With power come choice and the ability to make a lifestyle change. People in poverty need to know the hidden rules in order to gain that power. The hidden rules should be presented as a choice, not as a necessary change in identity. The wider the range of responses a person has the more they can control their situation.
 
Also attached is an article by Philip E. DeVol titled “Using the Hidden Rules of Class to Create Sustainable Communities.”  This article does an excellent job at comparing and contrasting the different mental models of poverty, middle class, and wealth that will help explain the different mindsets of the three populations.
 
Thank you,
 
Dorothy D. Leyba, MSW
Education Transitions Liaison 
Educational Outreach Program (EOP)
1330 Fox St. 3rd Fl North Denver CO 80204
Ph: 720-423-8090 Fax: 720-423-8242
School staff please note -- Our program is not able to pay rent, eviction assistance or motel vouchers.  We have many great community emergency resources available on our website resource packet section for families to call and learn about available opportunities.  We have condensed all the resources to be easily accessible in one resource guide for 2013.2014. The 28 page guide is available in English and Spanish!
 
Our website http://eop.dpsk12.org/ provides a link with this resources guide. You may also dial 2-1-1 for up-to-date shelter information, resources, supports, and needs.
 
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 12:14 PM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of Sept 23rd
 
This week’s email comes from our wonderful colleague and friend, Monica Parra. ENJOY!
                                                                                                                                   
All,
Following the news on the cuts to SNAP/Food stamps, and the “war” happening on the political aspect of the benefits
for poverty relief, I was wondering if those updates should be posted on this week’s newsletter.
However, after reading a quote from Maya Angelou this morning,
I realized that many of the aspects that we cannot directly control are the ones we focus the most and the ones
frustrating us the most. Even though it is true that things are getting tougher for our families,
we can all agree that the one thing that is mostly overlooked, and probably one of the most important
things for our families trying to overcome poverty, is the only one we can control: Our support.
 
As Maya Angelou said: “I'm not sure if resilience is ever achieved alone. Experience allows us to learn from example.
But if we have someone who loves us—I don't mean who indulges us,
but who loves us enough to be on our side—then it's easier to grow resilience, to grow belief in self,
to grow self-esteem. And it's self-esteem that allows a person to stand up.” 
 
If we agree with her, that resilience is easier to obtain when we have people on our side, helping us feel confident. 
 
I would like to take this week to reflect on our families and students’ resilience. The same resilience we see working with them every day, and the same one that teaches us to keep going even when we feel that our workload is overwhelming. Let’s capitalize on our families’ resilience, to keep empowering them by giving them the most precious thing we can: our support.
 
Especially when things get tougher for them (and us), we cannot forget the human component of what we do for our families. Maybe we cannot provide the love expressed in Angelou’s quote, but we can provide a safe place for families to feel empowered and to build their self-esteem to stand up and break the cycle of poverty.
 
When we see the following equation:
Cuts to benefits + Increase of families living in poverty = Difficulties & Bigger workload
 
Let’s try to keep focus and positive about our outcomes:
Human component + Continuous support = Empowerment that can break the cycle of poverty
 
I invite you to also take care of yourself this week. To empower others we need to feel at our best… If possible, get a mental health day when needed (not necessarily this week!!!), build a support system at work and mostly, don’t forget to breath!
 
Monica Parra-C.
SFPC Liaison Specialist
Federal Programs/Migrant Education
1330 Fox Street, 3rd Floor North
Denver, CO 80204
303.907.1329
 
 
"Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace." Benito Juárez
     "Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz". Benito Juárez
 
 
From: Theisen, Anna
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 10:21 AM
To: Conklin, Brenda; Leyba, Dorothy (SFPC Liason); Parra Castellano, Monica; Gorsky, Scott (Robert); Romero, Rebecca; Vaughan, Patricia; Edwards, Seth; Richman, Tim; Lomeli, Maria; Cash, Donna; Brown, David (Acad of Urban Learning); 'Meghan Welsh'; 'Julissa Torrez'; 'Hannah Hinman'; 'Erica Legrand'; Martinez, Helen (Joanna); Vaughan, Patricia; Tillson, Matt; Brodnax, Mitzi; Beindorff, Elisabeth; 'Amy Tedoff'; 'Kathy Poirier'; 'Hansen Jessica R.'; Miller, Christine (East); Albert, Chantel; Simpleman, Jarred; Ramirez, Maria Dolores; 'Lee Davis'; Bell, Jackie; Subhas, Chiara; Linzmeyer, Mary Anne; Romero, Rebecca; Simmons, Michael; Wamsley, Joan; Bicha, Becky; Bradsby, Veronica; Montgomery, Tiffanie
Subject: Poverty 101 email for week of Sept 16th
 
Hi All- this week’s topic is “budgeting.” We all know this term and try our best to do this each month. Imagine though if you had to have a monthly budget that would never allow you to afford your basic needs to be met (let alone anything “extra”).   Imagine your budget made you choose each month the most important things and your income didn’t measure up to those things.  How creative could you be? What could you go without? Insurance, food, new shoes, phone? Imagine you have 2 children ages 3 and 6. What could they go without? Food, new shoes, diapers?
 
The link below is a tool for basic need budget calculator. You can use it for yourself or a family you know in poverty. It is a great way to see how much it takes for families to afford minimum daily necessities. It also allows you to create customized results by changing assumptions about basic family expenses
http://www.nccp.org/tools/frs/budget.php
 
This following story was taken from Dr. Donna Beegle’s Facebook page. It is from a woman named Colleen that attended one of Donna’s Opportunity Conferences. She is a woman living in poverty. She is responding to one of the e-cards you see on Facebook. This one references a person in poverty:
This is in response to a greeting card that said, "So that's why I work so many hours. So you can collect welfare, wear pajamas in public and have an IPhone." I want you to know I am editing out some language from her testimonial so that those who are offended by obscenities can still hear her message.

"Did you see that eCard? What did you think?... Wait, no. Don't tell me because I am hoping that what you thought was this....I am not living in poverty. And so because I have no idea what it means to live this way, I will not judge and throw out (greeting) cards "funnies..." like a (person) who thinks they know anything beyond their Starbucks pumpkin latte and my fortunate ability to never worry about whether or not there is enough gas in my car or food to feed my kids or warm clothes for the changing season and all that other stuff that so many of us come by without having to give it too much thought. If someone living in poverty is gifted a nice pair of shoes (GASP! Sometimes they even get them for free because a nice mutli-quadrillion profiting company donates last year's not as cool anymore stock to Goodwill, shelters or thrift shops), or I see them with an iPhone (OMG ... How can they afford an iPhone?? Never mind that all the 'obsolete' early versions are given away for 10 bucks or for free because Apple is ready to make another 500 clams a pop off the salivating consumer with cash to burn for the latest in technology every single mother humping year. And it is apparently NOT common knowledge that land lines are obsolete. Connection to the outside world is not a luxury, right? I mean. RIGHT!?!?!?) or eating out at the local fast food joint with their family (OMG forbid!, that you see them dining at Burger King and spending 20 dollars. Because, jeez, they should be eating ramen, no?) , I will not judge them. They are human beings and deserve my damn respect for a life, knowledge base and survival skills that I know nothing about."
Ahem.
The person that likes (that greeting card) doesn't really fear their child going to school with clothes 5 years out of style. They also think nothing of spending money on a sanity saying "I just don't feel like cooking" McDonald's run. Something else they may not worry about? Getting their utilities turned off. Juggling who to and when to pay bills and at what time so that they don't get sued and the water stays hot. It's a constantly thinking life. Those living in ACTUAL poverty are ALWAYS thinking. ALWAYS wondering and ALWAYS planning.
Ok, calm down.
Don't get me wrong, I know you plan too. I do. We are a bit on the poorer side. We are working poor. But I  live in poverty and still I know that I am not immune to its possibility. Most Americans are ONE catastrophe away from poverty. A major illness. A job loss. A tragedy. So who gets to be high and mighty about hating the poor? If (this card) is any indication, just about everyone. And it's making me sick.
I mean, paycheck to paycheck anyone? Have you ever lived that way? Do you realize how close you were to welfare Those in poverty are people who deserve to be seen. They are people who deserve to be respected for the survival skills that they have been learning and using to make life a little less bulls***. To make life a little less painful and scary and dependent on others. They are human beings who deserve the joy one gets from a nice pair of shoes, or cable TV or a. iPhone because they will never go to Disneyworld and they will never eat at a fancy  restaurant and they will never have time to just not worry about life.
I shared this post because I think it goes along the lines of why teaching Poverty 101 is important. We know it is not acceptable for children to be bullied but messages like this that are on social media for the world to see can be viewed as bullying. That concept “when you know better, you do better” comes into play. As Dr. Beegle says in her message “when we remove judgment, we remove the shame.”
 
Budgeting is important for all of us. Shouldn’t everyone be allowed to treat themselves or their children to something once in a while that is not in the budget? Remember the last time you treated yourself to a  $4 coffee or your child a hot wheels car? Think of the feeling you had or the smile your child had. People in poverty deserve this too.
 
Have a great week! Please share in the dialogue J Jackie
 
 
Jackie Bell l Educational Outreach Program, Homeless Liaison
Ph: 720.423.8228 l Fax: 720.423.8242 l Website:  http://eop.dpsk12.org
“I Play for Team DPS”
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail, and delete the original message.  In addition, if you have received this in error, please do not review,distribute, or copy the message.  Thank you for your cooperation.
 
 
 











[1] Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), schools may disclose educational records for financial aid purposes without parental consent. 34 C.F.R. §99.31(4). This includes verifying that a youth is homeless and unaccompanied.

[i] Hammer, H., Finkelhor, D., & Sedlak, A. (2002). “Runaway / Thrownaway Children: National Estimates and Characteristics.” National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children. Washington DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. See also Greene, J. (1995). “Youth with Runaway, Throwaway, and Homeless Experiences: Prevalence, Drug Use, and Other At-Risk Behaviors.” Research Triangle Institute. Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; National Runaway Switchboard, http://www.1800runaway.org/.
[ii] Robertson, M. & Toro, P. (1999). “Homeless Youth: Research, Intervention, and Policy.” Practical Lessons: The 1998 National Symposium on Homelessness Research. Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Retrieved July 18, 2007 from http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/progsys/homeless/symposium/3-Youth.htm. See also MacLean, M.G., Embry, L.E. & Cauce, A.M. (1999). “Homeless Adolescents’ Paths to Separation from Family: Comparison of Family Characteristics, Psychological Adjustment, and Victimization.” Journal of Community Psychology, 27(2), 179-187.
 
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