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Private organizations are important players story by Andy Duncan People expect government agencies to address poverty. And in Oregon, government programs at the local, state and federal levels are working together on the issue. But another force is at work to alleviate the hardships of poverty. Not-for-profit organizations and businesses work alone and with government agencies to help families and individuals who are living below the poverty line. These not-for-profit organizations and businesses are spread across the state from Portland to Coos Bay to La Grande. Their poverty-related work is done from warehouses in the industrial areas of cities; offices on small-town streets; sheds and modest, renovated homes in rural areas; and the headquarters of private companies. Where does a not-for-profit, private organization get money? Some deliver goods and services to the needy through the efforts of volunteers, with no public funds involved. And many cooperate with public agencies, receiving grants and contracts to operate various programs and projects. Quite a few aggressively solicit private donations to support their missions. And some sell items such as used clothes and reworked equipment to raise money for their work. Some businesses involved with poverty-related efforts use their own money. Others have contracts with public agencies. The efforts of not-for-profit and for-profit groups range from handing out food and putting a roof over people's heads, to helping them prepare for and find jobs, to working on complex poverty-related issues in communities across the state and in Salem and Washington, D.C. There are thousands of not-for-profit and for-profit entities. A few generic categories capture the mission of quite a few, including organizations you may not have thought of as poverty fighters: Food banks and food advocacy groups. Churches and other religious groups that help the poor and work with poverty issues. Regional community action agencies. Community health clinics and health care advocacy groups. Groups that address adult literacy and related issues. Legal aid and legal advocacy organizations. Community crisis intervention and domestic violence shelters and services. Drug and alcohol treatment and support programs. Homeless shelters and other groups that address critical housing issues. Companies that provide job counseling and training. Companies that have special programs designed to employ people in poverty. Companies that develop and advocate for various programs related to welfare and work issues. The problem in naming any of these is that so many will be left out. But here's an example of the work a not-for-profit, private organization is doing to alleviate the hardships of poverty: In 1998, the Oregon Food Bank Network delivered emergency boxes containing a three- to five-day supply of food to more than 400,000 people, including 164,726 children under 17, and served more than 2,650,000 meals to poor people. The hunger relief network includes the Portland-based food bank, 20 regional food banks across the state and about 650 local food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other agencies and groups in Oregon and Clark County, Wash. The Oregon Food Bank recovers food from farms, government sources, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and individuals and distributes it to the regional food banks. Regional food banks then distribute the food to the local organizations, which work directly with people who need help. The regional banks, with names such as Linn-Benton Food Share and Food for Lane County, also collect food locally and distribute it. Some are affiliated with community action organizations that coordinate the delivery of social services in a region. "We had a big increase in the food we distributed last year," says Jerry Tippens, a retired newspaper editor who, as a volunteer, chairs the Oregon Food Bank's board of directors. "We think it's at least partially because there's been so much pressure on public agencies to get people off welfare, and because of cutbacks in food stamps for illegal aliens and single people." The Oregon Food Bank, like many not-for-profit organizations, also has a paid staff. Executive director Rachel Bristol says that besides trying to eliminate hunger, the organization is working with poor people and the public sector to get at "structural causes" of poverty. Other not-for-profit organizations in the state, such as the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, the Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries and many local groups, help poor people directly with needs such as housing, childcare, transportation, counseling, health and education. Other not-for-profit, private organizations, such as the United Way, raise funds and distribute them to groups that deliver services directly to the poor. Businesses most often address poverty issues through education and by providing jobs. Some offer work experience to young people, some offer job training and employment opportunities to families leaving welfare, and others have special hiring programs geared to people in poverty. Also, there are firms that specialize in counseling poor people to help them find jobs, or find better jobs. Last year nearly 5,000 welfare and unemployment recipients were placed in jobs that are subsidized by public funds through JOBS Plus, a state program that is the result of a 1990 ballot initiative spearheaded by Dick Wendt of Klamath Falls. Wendt is founder of Jeld-Wen, a wood products manufacturing company that has diversified into other businesses. This is called a subsidized employment approach to helping people on welfare. Like a lot of approaches to helping people in poverty, it is controversial. Some assert that the approach places private, for-profit companies on public assistance and places welfare recipients on a fast track toward long-term membership in Oregon's "working poor" by moving them into low-paying jobs while ignoring the basic causes of their poverty. Admirers of the approach counter that getting a job is important because it builds self-esteem and that, once they are employed and more self confident, people on welfare will improve themselves. Such controversy is not limited to businesses working with poverty issues. Critics have taken aim at employees in the public and not-for-profit, private sectors whose careers, they say, hinge on ministering to the day-to-day needs of poor people rather than helping them find a way out of poverty. They've even referred to this as a "poverty industry." Some of these critics contend that society should redirect most of the public and private resources spent on poverty to support a federally guaranteed minimum family income. They say this type of streamlined "safety net" would give poor Americans more money and they would not have to interact with a matrix of agencies and organizations when seeking help. A panel of prominent business leaders proposed a similar program to Richard Nixon when he was president. These critics of welfare programs contend that if the country had a guaranteed income, suffering would decline and self-confidence and the rate of escape from poverty would rise, at least for those without continuing mental or physical limitations. Others retort that the approach smacks of the "S" word-European-type socialism-and would not fit with our country's capitalistic economic philosophy. Many who work with public and private social service organizations scoff at the notion of a self-perpetuating "poverty industry." "That doesn't match up with the current movements in the social service arena, such as the daily work we are doing with people in poverty so they can become self sufficient, and the work we are doing to achieve welfare reform," says Robert More, program director for Housing and Emergency Services for Southwestern Oregon Community Action Committee, Inc., in Coos Bay. "We realize our job is not just to minister to the day-to-day needs of people in poverty but to help them move beyond their basic needs and out of poverty," he adds. Some private organizations are actually troubled by their perception that the government is "disinvesting" resources and shifting more of the burden of helping people in need to them. "Churches seem to be having to take on more and more work with people in need that the state should be doing," says Enid Edwards, director of public policy for the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, an association of 15 Christian denominations that does direct service and advocacy for people in poverty.     Article 4 of 4 in Part 4   back to top

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