Lexington, KY - The Community Action Council has announced that the organization’s 2012 Poverty Forum will be held Friday, September 28, from 6 to 9 pm at the Lexington Convention Center. The event will be highlighted by a speaker Tavis Smiley of PRI and PBS.
This year will be the fifth for Community Action’s special event which is open to the public. It draws a cross section of residents from the business, education, nonprofit, and other sectors.
Some of the people who come to the Poverty Forum work for hospitals and organizations which deal directly with the issues created by poverty. Other attendees simply want to help and learn more about poverty.
“We expect about 500 to 600 people,” said Cameron Minter, Public Information Specialist for Community Action.
“The Poverty Forum is Community Action Council’s most important event to raise community awareness about the 15% of our citizens, including 28% of our children, who lack the resources to meet even their basic, survival needs, said Jack Burch, Executive Director of the Community Action Council.
Besides making people aware of how many people in our community are dealing with issues that stem from living on incomes that fall below the Federal Poverty Guidelines the event has a more subtle educational aspect. It offers facts to replace erroneous ideas and images.
“We also seek to dispel stereotypes,” Burch explained. “For example: Lexington adults with low-income are more likely to be employed, not receiving public assistance; Whites are the largest racial demographic of persons living with incomes below the Federal Poverty Level.”
The Poverty Forum, while supported by private contributions, is not a fundraiser for the Community Action Council. Burch said that its purpose is informational.
If any revenues remain above the costs of the event the surplus is added to operating funds, so as to serve more people in need. The main sponsors for the Poverty Forum are Columbia Gas of Kentucky and Kentucky Utilities.
The Poverty Forum begins with a reception at 6 pm, followed by dinner at 6:30 pm. The main feature of the event is a keynote address by someone who is an expert on poverty and its effects on a city and region.
Guest speaker Smiley is probably best known as the host of the late night PBS TV talk show Tavis Smiley and also Public Radio International’s Tavis Smiley Show.
He is also co-host, with the distinguished scholar Dr. Cornell West, on Smiley & West, another Public Radio International production. The two noted men have written a book titled The Rich and The Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.
The book is a result of research, both scholarly and journalistic. They traveled across the United States, talking to people who are living in poverty and to people who work to lessen the effects of poverty in their communities.
They visited such sites as a tent city outside of Ann Arbor, MI, and talked to homeless people in shelters and those who are living on the streets, in various cities. One area on which they focused is how the lack of adequate housing both contributes to poverty and results from it.
Lexington has various poverty issues that concern all of us, even if we are not directly involved. Community Action Council’s Poverty Forum promises to be an engaging and interesting evening.
Learning more about local poverty as well as the national aspects of it (for example, legislation and changing healthcare policies) is a good way to start improving the situations of people who must deal with it on a daily basis. That improvement would be a benefit to everyone in the community.
To purchase tickets for the 2012 Poverty Forum see www.povertyforum.com. For more information call 859 244-2247.