When the news broke last month that Philadelphia’s poverty rate was stuck for another year at 25.7 percent, still the highest of America’s 10 largest cities, the collective response was one of frustration.
Despite Philly’s many cross-sector collaborations, local government efforts and discussions — prepare yourself for this shocker — ending poverty isn’t easy, which is why it hasn’t happened yet. Indeed, as panelist and GreenLight Fund Philadelphia ED Omar Woodard put it at ImpactPHL’s recent “Investing to End Poverty” event, it’s a Gordian knot.
Ending poverty will take a mix of investment types, socially aware development efforts and tax statuses, concluded the evening’s speakers:
- Noelle St-Clair — Community development advisor and outreach manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (moderator)
- Alexis McCarthy — Managing director of growth strategies, Triskeles Foundation
- Anne Bovaird Nevins — Chief strategy and communications officer, PIDC
- Gabriel Mandujano — Founder and CEO, Wash Cycle Laundry
- Jodi Reynhout — VP of administration, Esperanza US
- Omar Woodard — Executive director, GreenLight Fund Philadelphia
As it also turns out, when you pull in five super smart people to talk about the approaches their organizations are using to hack away at that intractable problem, the resulting conversation will be difficult to neatly summarize. Here are a few simple takeaways from the Q&A portion of the evening:
1. Before all else, three big things must happen to get us out of the top spot.
The ecosystem changes that could speed the process of ending poverty in Philadelphia are better funding for education, better health needs assessments and better college graduation rates, according to Woodard, whose GreenLight Fund helps nonprofits with proven results expand to new cities via venture philanthropy.
First, Pennsylvania ranks 47th out of 50 in state spending on education: “Nothing changes until we get closer to the top of that list rather than at the bottom,” he said.
Second, though Philly is known for its medical institutions, healthcare outcomes are consistently low. Poor health impacts all aspects of a person’s life.
And finally, more young adults need college degrees, not only workforce development, because the number of jobs that requires them is increasing locally, with higher earning potential in tow.
“Poverty is generally a wage problem, it’s an income problem, layered on top of generations of gender and racial discrimination,” Woodard concluded. “So, all of those things have to happen, but it’s hard to do, unless you have a lot of people in this room who are all working together but operating from a common playbook.”
VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: GENEROCITY.ORG