Presenters: Annette Carlisle and Russell Lowery-Hart of Panhandle Twenty/20 and Elia Moreno of Cal Farley’s
“I feel it is my job, as author Jim Collins says, to pull up the rock and look at the squiggly things underneath.”
— Annette Carlisle
Because Texas ranks near the bottom in education attainment levels and near the top in poverty levels, the crew involved with the Panhandle Twenty/20 initiative, based in Amarillo, felt it was important to take a proactive and systemic approach to responding to poverty in their community. In their SXSWedu session, the presenters asked the audience for the common reasons they hear that people enter poverty. The typical answers were given: laziness, poor choices, addictive behaviors and substance abuse and a preference to “live off of the system.”
To combat poverty, the Panhandle group said that educating community members about poverty is equally important to helping those living in poverty. For example, the Panhandle initiative raises awareness about the wide-ranging triggers that can lead to poverty, including immigration challenges, situational factors (such as divorce and illness) and generational factors. Panhandle presenters said their favorite event to produce so far has been an Opportunity Conference. The organization identified 75 “neighbors” living in poverty, who then were paired with “navigators” from the community who assisted their neighbors in finding services to get them moving in the right direction. One neighbor observed after the event: “It changed my life just to know I’m not facing life by myself.”
Dig In: www.panhandle2020.org
