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'We Can't Serve Our Way Out of Poverty'

Commitment to mission cultivates new model for civic engagement in Pittsburgh

Published in Issue 1 – 2009 of the Alliance for Children & Families Magazine (view or print article PDF)

In the towers of Pittsburgh’s financial district, employees are accustomed to their personal credit histories being questioned. It’s a prerequisite for the men and women who oversee four-, six-, or eight-figure transactions. Across town, it seems that demonstrated financial responsibility is also required for residents seeking lower-paying jobs in the city’s grocery stores and restaurants.

Requiring credit screenings for employment is a growing practice in the area, even for low-wage jobs, says Bob Feikema, director of programs and community initiatives at Alliance for Children and Families member Parental Stress Center, Pittsburgh. Individuals with problem credit histories are being turned away from jobs, and many may end up seeking help from area human service agencies.

“I’ve been in this field for more than 30 years, and I see that the lines of clients outside our agency doors have not diminished,” Feikema says. “That suggests we might be doing some things right because we’re serving so many people. On the other hand, there may be something that we’re not doing well, because the lines continue to get longer.”

The growing lines, coupled with the startling statistic that nearly one-quarter of city residents live in poverty, were two of the catalysts which drove Parental Stress Center to join forces with Alliance member Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and several other agencies. Together the 10-agency coalition is pioneering an initiative which, if successful, may allow each organization to help change community conditions that cause or exacerbate the problems facing the people they serve.

The Citizens Leadership Initiative (CLI) is focused on reducing poverty in the region. To achieve that, the coalition relies upon the power of open and respectful communication. By empowering low-income individuals and communities to lift up their authentic voices, the initiative encourages citizens to advocate for changes on their own behalf.

“If you look at important social changes that have happened in the past 50 years or so, most occurred as a result of citizen-led movements,” Don Goughler, CEO of Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, says. “Any changes or any significant improvements in health care systems, social service systems, or in poverty, I believe, will only occur because citizens get involved.”

While committing to CLI requires each agency to devote staff time and financial resources to a project that breaks from the important and pressing demands of service delivery, Feikema and Goughler agree that participating is part of their mission.
 
“Our agency would be fairly useless if we simply became contractors for categorical services. I think our mission requires more than just a technocratic approach to human services,” Goughler says.
 
Feikema adds, “I think most every agency would like to do what we’re doing. Many people who work in human services are frustrated because their passion for social change has been diverted by funding requirements that prescribe the kinds of services that can be provided.”

New Service Approach, Unchanged Commitment to Mission

Recognizing that poverty is the cause and consequence of many of the challenges experienced by low-income residents, the group of agencies spearheading CLI chose to target efforts toward that cause. Practically speaking, poverty was also an issue to which each organization can relate regardless of program areas, Feikema says.
 
“We can’t serve our way out of poverty,” he continues. “Civic engagement has an essential role to play in reducing the length of the lines outside our doors. It is a way to accomplish our mission at a much more fundamental level. Not only are we responding when people have needs, but we are changing conditions so that they no longer have that same level of need.”
 

A planning committee met at least monthly throughout 2007 to develop the CLI model. The result was an aggressive, three-phased project running from January through December 2008. In stage one, occurring in early 2008, the sponsoring agencies recruited 20 residents with low incomes (200 percent of the poverty line or less) to participate as the project’s “fellows.” (A profile of each fellow is available as a PDF, which was provided by Parental Stress Center.)

 
Click to enlarge as a PDF.
 

Selected fellows were then equipped with tools for their success. The Coro Center for Civic Leadership provided 12 weeks of professional leadership training, and a three-installment stipend of $750 was offered to help the fellows with any expenses while, more importantly, recognizing the value of their time and community knowledge.

During the training phase, fellows identified a theme to guide their work, and they honed in on the idea of second chances. While the concept of second chances for residents with criminal backgrounds and/or poor credit histories recurred most frequently, the theme was inclusive in nature and allowed for a broad array of issues to be brought forth during the project.

“At the end of the training the fellows were a force that would not be denied,” Feikema says. “They were ready to go out and conquer the world. This was a group process that succeeded in bonding this group into a force for change.”

By the time the fellows’ training was completed, the agencies were prepared to take a back seat and support the fellows as they implemented the second phase of the project.

“It’s a somewhat untraditional role for human service agencies,” acknowledges Linda Nguyen, director of civic engagement for the Alliance. “Organizations are more accustomed to driving programs and services, but it’s only when agencies encourage citizens to become their own advocates that real change can happen.”

Joycelyn Banks, center, is one of 20 fellows who participate in Pittsburgh's Citizens Leadership Initiative. Banks shares a few words during an event commemorating the fellows' graduation from a 12-week training program designed to prepare them to be civic leaders.
 
Now in the driver’s seat, during phase two the fellows’ newly cultivated skills were called upon as they planned, marketed, and carried out a series of formal Community Conversations. Each was designed to lift the authentic voices of community residents by inviting citizens to gather, discuss barriers, share personal experiences, and suggest solutions to second chances issues on a peer-to-peer level.
 
In the final stage, government, foundation, and agency leaders were brought to the table to hear and discuss the authentic experiences and findings gathered by the fellows during phase two.
 
Throughout each phase, the organizing agencies played a supportive role. Yet, at its core CLI remained wholly citizen-driven.
 
“I define civic engagement as citizens gaining power to make change,” Goughler says. “It’s not just enough to speak about something; it’s not worth the effort if that’s all that happens. It’s only worth the effort if the citizens gain the tools and the capacity to cause change to occur in a society. So that means that civic engagement has to include consciousness raising, education, logistical support, strategy, and tactics.”

Frustration Spawns Action

Seeds for CLI were sown as early as 2000 after discontent with the status quo was expressed by several area nonprofit human service leaders. Fertilized by the fact that in four years they hadn’t seen much change, by late 2004 their dissatisfaction had taken root and was growing into action.

Months of discussions and planning among a group of United Way agencies resulted in the Poverty in Pittsburgh Symposium in May 2006. Individuals from agencies, governments, and foundations were invited to participate in discussion circles focused on a variety of topics related to community poverty, housing, and health. Refreshed by dialogue and excited about the ideas that emerged, the symposium added energy to the equation. Yet, without funding for a formal project, little more resulted immediately.

It was around the same time, however, that the Alliance was investing in the civic engagement of its members and positioning itself as a leader in community organizing among nonprofit human service organizations. Made possible by ongoing support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Annie E. Casey Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Skillman Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation of New York, the civic engagement department annually provides grants to support members’ initiatives.

Forty members have already benefited from a total of $290,000 in support. Family Services of Western Pennsylvania was part of the original group of grantees that received a New Voices at the Civic Table grant in 2006 worth $10,000. Parental Stress Center also received the New Voices grant for $5,000 in 2007.

Parental Stress Center’s New Voices award, along with a $7,500 Alliance National Family Week grant provided seed money for CLI (National Family Week is a component of the Alliance’s civic engagement department).

“The Alliance played a key role in getting CLI off the ground,” Feikema says. “The Alliance gave us the Good Housekeeping Seal. We were able to meet with other funders and say, ‘Here’s a national organization that thinks this is worth doing. What can you do for us locally?’”

By late 2007, the coalition had enough support to kickoff CLI at a December National Family Week event. The event drew an equal distribution of community residents, agency staff, and civic leaders for a Community Conversation on Poverty. It provided a forum for acquainting civic leaders with CLI, while also offering a taste of the process to community residents who were interested in becoming fellows.

An audience of community residents and sponsoring agency representatives listen to fellows participating in Pittsburgh’s Citizens Leadership Initiative present their plan for a civic engagement program centered on the topic of second chances.
Says Feikema, “Agency representatives and civic leaders came away with a sense that this was a different kind of experience because they would hear directly from people who are experiencing daily struggles in their neighborhoods. The event contained all the potentialities of the larger project condensed into one morning. All we did for the rest of the project was to draw on that potential and let it grow naturally.”

Conversations Spur Ideas, Funding Leads

In November 2008, phase three of CLI brought the initiative full circle in a culminating National Family Week event. Representatives and leaders from foundations; local, state, and federal government; the judicial and prison system; and nonprofit agencies participated in a formal information-sharing and discussion forum.
 
It was an opportunity for the fellows to share the authentic experiences and findings gathered during their project with a large group, as well as in breakout discussion circles.

The impact of that occasion and the bringing together of different civic leaders with the power to affect change shouldn’t be underestimated, Feikema says. An example is the discussion between area foundation leaders and an aide to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter which took place at his table.

“What developed was a conversation about the growing practice of area employers requiring credit checks,” Feikema says. “Specter’s aide said he hadn’t heard about that before and it really struck him. He suggested that one way to approach the issue was in terms of privacy rights. Is a person’s credit history private information? Could it be a discriminatory practice if employers use it as a basis for hiring decisions where the information isn’t relevant to the functions of the job?”
 

Not only did the discussion spur an individual with connections in the federal government to take note, it also led to funding leads, Feikema continues. “One of the foundation representatives indicated that if the fellows were to come to him with a plan to address a particular issue, such as this credit history one, that he’d be interested in hearing about it—and he’d be interested in funding it.”
 
Feikema adds, “And that all resulted just because you sat people in the same room to talk. It demonstrates how, at root, what this project is about is the fact that democracy is anchored in dialogue.”
 
To guide the final community conversation and as a capstone to the project, the fellows drafted a final report which reflects their genuine firsthand experience and provides information about key issues identified and possible solutions. (The fellows' final report is available as a PDF.)
 
While formal support for the 20 fellows has ended, they—be it as individuals or as a group—are free to continue with the project on their own and in any fashion they see fit. Their final report provides a launching pad for continuing work on the issue of second chances, securing funding, or partnering with existing projects around similar issues. They are also exploring developing a joint project with one of the sponsoring agencies.

Replicable Model With Measurable Impact

As for the model of CLI, it will be repeated with three more rounds of fellows in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
 
“In 2008, Parental Stress Center received the Alliance’s largest civic engagement award, the Community Leadership Grant,” Nguyen says. “The three-year grant will help to support CLI as a multiple-year initiative. It also recognizes the exceptional efforts being led in Pittsburgh by the Parental Stress Center and Family Services of Western Pennsylvania.”
 
Although Feikema says some process adjustments will be made based on lessons learned during the first year of implementation, he says that at its core the model provides a sound process for implementing a civic engagement program.
 
“This is a very replicable model,” Goughler adds. “Implementing it is time-consuming, but so is everything else that’s worthwhile. And the payoff is measureable; the most important impact is that we have 20 individuals who are now capable of taking on community issues, and they understand how to organize that advocacy.”

The most difficult component to replicate, Feikema says, would be the deep-rooted relationships and partnerships that greatly contributed to CLI’s success. The laundry list of partners includes the Coro Center, the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, numerous nonprofit organizations, and endless individual connections.

“We, as agency veterans, have become so controlled by the financial requirements of our business that sometimes we lose the liveliness which is the reason why we got into this work in the first place,” Goughler says. “Projects like this bring the agency closer to the people we serve. It restores what we always knew: We always knew that people were capable of controlling their own destinies.”

He continues, “We tend to focus too much sometimes on doing things for people rather than encouraging them to reach their capacity. I think this is an optimistic venture for any agency. It’s fun, it’s enjoyable, and the results restore your faith in people and in the democratic process.”


Learn more about the Alliance members sponsoring CLI: Parental Stress Center and Family Services of Western Pennsylvania. For more information about National Family Week, visit the program's website.

A final 2008 project report compiled by Parental Stress Center is available as a PDF.