Poverty in Memphis soars above the natural rate, but is sometimes overlooked and pushed under the rug by most. According to Bruce Kennedy at CBS News, Memphis ranked as number four among poorest cities in the United States. Elena Delavega, assistant professor at The Mid-South Family & Community Empowerment Institute, shows eye opening statistics that the Memphis poverty rate at 29.8% is above average as compared to the United States poverty rate at 15.5%. On a local level, the City of Memphis poverty rates are higher than poverty rates in Shelby County. Tom Charlier, a writer for the Commercial Appeal, says that Memphis has the second highest metro poverty rate in the entire country. There are many organizations looking to put an end to poverty
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One reason why we decided to work with the Dorothy Day House stems from us the importance of family dynamics and how parents want nothing more than to ensure their kids future. Another reason the Dorothy Day House caught our attention was that they house any type of family. Their families are diverse in make-up, size, age, religion and ethnicity but share the common bonds of poverty and homelessness (“Dorothy”). The Dorothy Day House does not criticize people when it comes to housing families, but rather look at what they can do to help. This foundational thinking comes from their Christian namesake, Dorothy Day, whose ideals we too admired. She was a passionate fighter for helping the poor, for peace, and for upholding the dignity of human life overall. Her impact was so strong that she went to India to speak to Mother Teresa’s novices and received a cross from Mother Teresa worn by the Missionaries of Charity (“Dorothy”). Day illustrated what it meant to put others before herself; selflessness is the purpose of the Dorothy Day House and why we chose this as the foundation of our goal. All of these reasons contributed to us wanting to do something to help not only the homeless cause but also Day 's charity since we highly value her ideals and mission work. By doing this project, we hope to reach a goal that Day herself would …show more content…
These facts will help us create the informational keynote/presentation that we will present to the student body and faculty in order inform and get people talking about our project. Also, during class we will set up times to meet with representatives from the Dorothy Day House to come up with the best plan to distribute what we collect to those in need at the Dorothy Day House. Outside of class, we will execute the main part of the project by having the students donate items and play 2k17. Additionally, we will give whatever we collect to the Dorothy Day House outside of
One reason why we decided to work with the Dorothy Day House stems from us the importance of family dynamics and how parents want nothing more than to ensure their kids future. Another reason the Dorothy Day House caught our attention was that they house any type of family. Their families are diverse in make-up, size, age, religion and ethnicity but share the common bonds of poverty and homelessness (“Dorothy”). The Dorothy Day House does not criticize people when it comes to housing families, but rather look at what they can do to help. This foundational thinking comes from their Christian namesake, Dorothy Day, whose ideals we too admired. She was a passionate fighter for helping the poor, for peace, and for upholding the dignity of human life overall. Her impact was so strong that she went to India to speak to Mother Teresa’s novices and received a cross from Mother Teresa worn by the Missionaries of Charity (“Dorothy”). Day illustrated what it meant to put others before herself; selflessness is the purpose of the Dorothy Day House and why we chose this as the foundation of our goal. All of these reasons contributed to us wanting to do something to help not only the homeless cause but also Day 's charity since we highly value her ideals and mission work. By doing this project, we hope to reach a goal that Day herself would …show more content…
These facts will help us create the informational keynote/presentation that we will present to the student body and faculty in order inform and get people talking about our project. Also, during class we will set up times to meet with representatives from the Dorothy Day House to come up with the best plan to distribute what we collect to those in need at the Dorothy Day House. Outside of class, we will execute the main part of the project by having the students donate items and play 2k17. Additionally, we will give whatever we collect to the Dorothy Day House outside of