Women and poverty in Dallas, TX

To live above poverty in Dallas, a woman needs to make more than $44,000. In Texas, the average woman makes $35,363.

Gender Wage Gap:

o   The average Texas woman is 1.2% more likely to live in poverty than a man, and generally makes $9,158 less per year than her male counterpart (.79 to a $1)

o   A woman who has some college education or an associate degree makes less money than a man with just a high school diploma 

o   This earning power also affects how women are able to pay for child care, health care and housing. With the median income for single mothers at $23,870 throughout the state, many mothers are paying 21%of their income toward health care, more than 30% toward housing and with little money left, more than 1/3 of Texas women and girls don’t have health care coverage.

 

Women

Who Baked the Bread? 

 Who baked the bread

That Jesus blessed
And broke, and shared
That Passover supper, when he said,
"This is my body
Broken for you"?

Who made the wine,
When he passed the cup,
Saying, "This is my blood,
The blood of the covenant,
Shed for you and for many.
The fruit of the vine
I shall not taste again
Until I taste it new
In the Kingdom of God"?
Who made the wine?

Was it a woman who tended the vine,
Pressed the grapes, and made the wine;
Who planted the field, threshed the wheat,
And baked the bread for others to eat?

And afterwards, did a woman come
To clear the cup; to mop,
Perhaps, a single careless drop
Of wine, of God's blood shed;
To gather every scattered crumb
Of broken body, broken bread?

Did a woman, coming to clean the room,
Find grace in the fragments left behind,
As women, later, would come to find
An angel and an empty tomb?

Katherine Dale Makus

Source: Daughters of Sarah (Mar-Apr 1988)

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Be That Woman

The Washington Area Women's Foundation, in partnership with RP3 Agency, produced this video depicting the tough circumstances women confront far too often, especially in urban centers like Dallas.

But the story doesn't need to end there.

Investing in the lives of girls and women pays off big time!

Those of us who work in urban settings among low-income folks understand this truth. This creative little 2-minute video intends to encourage such investments in this specially placed and powerful human capital resource.

Half the Sky

A book we all should consider reading. . .and acting upon in our various corners of the world. 

Short term gain vs. long term return

Read this note on Friday, May 8, 2009, in The Dallas Morning News. I post it, not because I want to discuss birth control, family planning or related issues, but because of what the facts behind the report illustrate.

Read it and then I'll get back to you:

Under the Dome
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, May 8, 2009
The Associated Press
Birth control pill funds targeted

A powerful Republican senator is blocking an increase in state funding for birth control pills, saying Texas can't afford the expenditure in such tough economic times.

The $7 million expenditure for the pills has become a sticking point between House and Senate negotiators trying to reach agreement on the budget. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said Texas women could purchase their own birth control pills.

Family planning advocates say the money would go to a subsidy program that a patchwork of clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, uses to help low-income women get birth control bills. The reimbursement rate of $2.80 hasn't been raised since the 1970s, they say.
____________________________________

Okay. Let me see if I understand. We opt today to save a reported $7 million by not funding this health benefit for low-income women. Funds are needed because the reimbursement rate for the benefit via Medicaid has not been increased over the past 3-4 decades.

So, we choose to let these women, all mothers and potential mothers, "go it alone" when it comes to their reproductive health and welfare because we need to save money during these hard times.

You gotta be kidding me!

Does Senator Ogden know what it costs to raise a child? Does he understand the cost to the State of Texas to protect, educate and provide for the child of a low-income woman or family? I don't even need to mention the cost and dilemma's associated with "unwanted" children.

Here we have a classic example of penny wise and pound foolish. Surely, surely, saner heads will prevail here. Tell me this is a joke, please tell me.

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The Girl Effect

Take a moment to watch the video produced by Global Giving entitled "The Girl Effect" at: http://www.girleffect.org/#/video/.

When you get to the start, be sure and answer the prompt question by clicking on "Agree."

Creative.

Powerful.

Ingenious.

Full of truth.

Any idea, institution, tradition or directive that attempts to limit women in any manner is false by definition. This is especially true when it comes to community development anywhere in the world.

[Thanks to my good friend, Lee Carter for sharing this with me and all of us!]

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Lourdes' Story

Below you'll be able to read a short note and watch a video message from one of our neighbors, Lourdes.

We met Lourdes during a personal and family crisis. When she found our public interest law firm, the L.A.W. Center, she discovered the allies and advocates she needed to address and successfully resolve her horrible situation.

As you watch the video and listen to her experience, try to put yourself in her place. Her story is gripping. Thankfully, the outcome is very encouraging!

Lourdes found the protection that she needed when she came to Central Dallas Ministries. Our attorneys took her case and provided her with the legal protection that she deserved to save her life and the life of her young daughter.

________________________

"Dear Friend,

My name is Lourdes. My daughter and I lived with severe domestic violence for years. Now, because of your support of Central Dallas Ministries’ Legal Action Works Center, my daughter and I are legally protected from future abuse.

We are now able to live our lives free of fear!

Thank you for caring about our safety.

Sincerely,

Rosalind

The tears flowed freely here last week.

On Tuesday morning, we learned that our dear friend, Rosalind Sanders had died at home following a massive stroke.

I was in a meeting talking about housing development for the homeless when the news interrupted the conversation and brought everything to a complete halt.

Memories of this woman washed over all who had known her.

Rosalind volunteered at CDM for almost 13 years. She was one of the first of our low-income neighbors (others might think of her as a "client"--for us she was always "Rosalind, our friend and ally") who joined us to build up the community by serving it, listening to it and responding to it with dignity, love and great respect.

She first came to CDM looking for all of that. Rosalind discovered what she was looking for in the community she loved and worked hard to improve. Unlike the rest of her world, the life she found among her friends here was exceptional, supportive, welcoming and authentically affirming.

As a single mother, she faced her challenges.

In addition, she endured a number of chronic health maladies. She worked hard to improve, with little success.

The people in her world whom she should have been able to count on often let her down terribly. Again, I believe this is why she spent so much quality time with CDM and with the Central Dallas Church. In our extended family she found the love that goes along with knowing and being known.

One of our long term team members put it best when she said, "You know, Larry, I just wasn't finished with Rosalind. . .I just wasn't finished."

Throughout the day, those of us who knew her, offered up prayers for her family and shed tears over her passing. We wondered what her children and grandchildren would do next. We shared memories and began to think about a funeral.

You can imagine my surprise when toward the end of the day I got the news that the earlier report was wrong.


Rosalind was not gone, she wasn't even ill!

There has been no stroke. That misfortune had befallen another person, the mother of one of the teens with whom we work.

Rosalind was alive!

We all were concerned for the children of the woman who had passed and the part of our organization closest to that very hard and troubling reality went to work on responding with love and nurture. . .

. . .but Rosalind was alive!

There was rejoicing all around, as relief set in throughout our organization.

After settling down with our good news, and still worrying about the loss in the other family not so closely related to us, we all began to give thanks for Rosalind, for the community of which she is such an important part, and for the fact that we would have more time together.

Strange. The report of her death validated the truth of our relationship.

We are friends and partners in community development.

We have more time, thankfully.

What gladness! I haven't seen her since the terrifying rumor ran through our lives, but when I do, I promise we will rejoice!

A Harsh Mothers' Day in Urban America

Severe poverty hit a 32 year high in 2005.

Most of the severely poor (under $10,000 annual income for a family) in the United States are women and children.

Life for most single mothers in the urban centers of our nation is indescribably tough.

Limited income never translates to the curtailment of need.

Children all need the same basics: nutritious food, decent housing, emotional nurture, safe places to play and to learn, access to routine, preventive medical attention, engaged parents.

Poverty cuts hard and persistently against every single one of these basic needs.

Poverty unsettles the equilibrium of communities, families, adults and children. Poverty throws everything out of kilter. Poverty introduces many negatives to the equation of life in our cities.

Over the past almost 40 years, I've watched poor women struggle to do their best by their children, often without the help of the men in their lives. I've seen lots of courage. Sadness has been a constant companion, as well. I've seen the love and the devotion, the pride and the fear.

I'm convinced that as women find ways to battle through poverty, they and their children achieve great and surprising things.

But the poverty is a power to be reckoned with.

My hat is off to every mom today who struggles on alone and poor in an increasingly difficult social and economic environment.

Shame on us as a people if we refuse to enter the struggle to see things improve for our weakest and most vulnerable neighbors.

We must do better.