If you travel into any major inner-city or urban area, you are sure to find many examples of poverty. From New York City to Los Angeles, and all around the world, millions of people live at or below the poverty line and struggle to meet their needs from day to day. According to the United States Census Bureau, the poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent, specifically meaning that there were 46.7 million people in poverty. The issue of poverty is a relevant cause to social science because it deals directly with people and how they live and interact with one another. Poverty does not merely have economic implications. If a person is homeless, unemployed, or not able to buy necessities, there is a significant impact on how they are viewed and treated in society.
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We worked specifically with their outreach ministry, going out to the poorest neighborhoods of Atlanta (a place nicknamed “the Bluff”) and under the interstate bridges to offer the homeless a hug, a prayer, and a bagged lunch. During my time spent in inner-city Atlanta I was taken aback by what I experienced. It wasn’t like the stereotypical exposés on the nightly news. It was real life, real people, and real struggles shoved directly in my face. On this trip I was fully immersed in the difficult context of poverty. I witnessed firsthand the immediate social issues of poverty—not through statistics but through true encounters with people that dealt with poverty each day. For my own self I was able to break the stereotypes I had of the impoverished. I met and spoke with people of all races, all genders, and all situations. With only 4 days of working with the impoverished, I took back new knowledge and understanding that would stay with me
We worked specifically with their outreach ministry, going out to the poorest neighborhoods of Atlanta (a place nicknamed “the Bluff”) and under the interstate bridges to offer the homeless a hug, a prayer, and a bagged lunch. During my time spent in inner-city Atlanta I was taken aback by what I experienced. It wasn’t like the stereotypical exposés on the nightly news. It was real life, real people, and real struggles shoved directly in my face. On this trip I was fully immersed in the difficult context of poverty. I witnessed firsthand the immediate social issues of poverty—not through statistics but through true encounters with people that dealt with poverty each day. For my own self I was able to break the stereotypes I had of the impoverished. I met and spoke with people of all races, all genders, and all situations. With only 4 days of working with the impoverished, I took back new knowledge and understanding that would stay with me