Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities by Ruby Payne, Philip DeVol, and Terie Smith. 

3/5 rating. 

Book #110 of 2019. Read September 27, 2019.

This textbook reviews the reality of life in poverty for some case studies by the authors as well as discussing the best ways to assist these people to bridge their way to middle-class. As a textbook, it’s not exactly the most riveting read, but it does have some useful information, ideas, and steps for people either in services to assist people out of poverty, those actually in poverty themselves, or potential mentors. As stated in the book: “Many individuals stay in poverty because they don’t know there is a choice – and if they do know, they have no one to teach them hidden rules or provide resources.” This means it is up to those who have the knowledge and means to assist to lift up those in poverty.

Quotes:

“We can neither excuse persons in poverty nor scold them for not knowing; as professionals we must teach them and provide support, insistence, and expectations.”

“There are many forms of welfare, but the poor are the only ones who are labeled ‘undeserving.’ Others who receive welfare are students with government fellowships, home owners with federal-tax and mortgage-interest deductions, corporations with government subsidies, and military bases that are kept open to prevent job loss.”

“The ability to leave poverty is more dependent upon other resources than it is upon financial resources.”

“Individuals leave poverty for one of four reasons: a goal or vision of something they want to be or have; a situation that is so painful that anything would be better; someone who ‘sponsors’ them (i.e., an educator or spouse or mentor or role model who shows them a different way or convinces them that they could live differently); or a specific talent or ability that provides an opportunity for them.”

“Many individuals stay in poverty because they don’t know there is a choice – and if they do know, they have no one to teach them hidden rules or provide resources.”

“We saw that in the working-class families about half of all feedback was affirmative among family members when the child was 13 to 18 months old…In the professional families…more than 80% of the feedback to the 13- to 18-month-old child was affirmative…Almost 80% of the welfare parents’ feedback to their 13- to 18-month-old children was negative.”

“Perhaps the most famous contemporary abuse of the anecdote was by Ronald Reagan…who in the presidential campaigns of 1976 and 1980, railed against a mythical ‘welfare queen’ (never publicly named by Reagan), who had allegedly used eighty aliases, thirty addresses, twelve social security cards, and four nonexistent dead husbands to fraudulently collect $150,000. In fact, the closest actual case was a woman in Chicago who had used two false names to improperly collect $8,000.”

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