Agenda - 03-19-2002 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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"Poverty in Orange County: The Issues that Remain" 7 QUESTIONS AND AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: Poverty and those with disabilities. Martha Barbee stated that she was disturbed that she did not hear Dr. Dobelstein address those persons with disabilities. She found that dealing with her disability has been harder than dealing with racism. Dr. Dobelstein said that poverty-related planning has to move beyond particularistic issues and be more general. What should the churches do for people in poverty? Rev. Freeland said that the faith communities have to get back to being proactive. The churches need to step out boldly with funding and with places for agencies to do the work. A study was done that said, overall,people in poverty do not feel comfortable in the churches. She is working with a committee to try to help the churches work with their attitudes about the impoverished. She said that people who are disabled and/or elderly also do not feel comfortable in churches because they do not feel included. Coordination of services. Kathy Bryan,Director of Orange Enterprises, said that there were a lot of services in the County, but there was no coordination. She said that there should be a single portal for all-of the agencies. Public transportation. Alex Asbun, from El Centro Latino, is concerned about making public transportation accessible to non- English speaking communities. Passmore replied that there were some strategies in the works for using Spanish with the public transportation services. Outreach and communications. Joe Hensley,from the Dispute Settlement Center, said that there were two systems at work-services provided by the community and services provided by the community of people living in poverty. He said that folks that are poor have worked out a system for themselves to provide the services that they need when they cannot get it from the agencies that claim to provide the services. He said that the people that are providing the services on either side are not talking to one another. He asked how to increase dialogue between the two sides and bridge the gap. Summers said that when grants and budgets are cut,the money to do outreach gets cut first. Public agencies would like to go out and do the' outreach,but they must use volunteers. She encouraged looking at developing a community-wide system for outreach, not just for health, so that there is a'coordinated system of getting the message out to people about what services are available. ■ S A. ■ Session: Education (Lifecycle Approach) Facilitator/Recorder: Louise Echols and Sheila Sholes-Ross 1. Family and Community Centered Approaches • Service Learning so people feel connected to the community • Expand the mentoring programs • Importance placed on school by the community