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Mayor Forms Commission to Cope With Rising Poverty Levels
Sojourner’s Truth Staff
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner announced the formation of the
Mayor’s Commission on Poverty last week in order to fight
poverty “one individual, one family, one house and one
neighborhood at a time,” he said during a news conference on
Thursday, June 5.
“This group is a proactive, action-oriented group designed
to implement best practices, to assist existing
organizations and to attack poverty,” said Finkbeiner.
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The Mayor’s Commission on Poverty will consist of community
leaders from the Equal Opportunity Planning Association (E.O.P.A.),
the United Way of Greater Toledo, the Greater Toledo Urban
League, I Matters Homeless Awareness Tent City, Advocates
for Basic Legal Equality and Legal Aid of Western Ohio (ABLE
and LAWO), the AFL-CIO, Women Blessing Women, two students
from Scott High School and city staff from the Board of
Community Relations and Department of Neighborhoods (Juanita
Greene, Kattie Bond and Mike Badik).
“Rather than reinvent, this group will be connecting and
developing existing resources,” said the mayor.
In 2006, according to the poverty levels recorded by the
federal government, the state of Ohio matched the national
average on the poverty index – for the first time – with
13.3 percent of Ohioans living in poverty.
The Mayor’s Commission will select one neighborhood in which
to implement a pilot program, said Finkbeiner, and then
coordinate the implementation of the program in that area.
“One of the first tasks will be to gather residents and
other stakeholders to identify solutions based on the actual
barriers those in need are experiencing,” said the mayor.
“We know jobs, job-readiness and education are critical
pieces to breaking the cycle of poverty here in Toledo. But
for a poverty-stricken individual and/or family to become
self-sufficient, individual and systematic barriers must be
removed. Those challenges are to be the focus of our local
effort.”
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