Dear Friends,

During 2011, faith and individual donors like you contributed $12,964 to the Alabama Poverty Project. That means we are nearly 75 percent of the way to our 2011 goal of $17,500. Thank you!

We are immensely grateful to partners like you.  You inspire us and constantly remind us that, together, we have the power to end poverty and hunger in Alabama.

We hope that you had a chance to join us at one of our programs this year.  The highlights included:

• The  Blueprints College Access Initiative, which worked with 246 students at seven high schools across Alabama. Blueprints increases college access by supporting families in college and career planning, financial aid literacy, and ACT preparation.  Thank you for helping equip students to pursue their college dreams.

• Celebrating the publication of APP Co-Founder  Wayne Flynt‘s memoir, Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives.  Wayne challenges and inspires us to keep fighting for a more just Alabama. Thank you for helping us keep his flame going.

•  Alabama Possible Community Conversations, which bring together Alabamians to talk about our aspirations for our communities, the barriers we face in achieving those aspirations, and what actions individuals, leaders, and communities can take in turning possibilities into reality. Thank you for helping us listen to the dreams of everyday Alabamians.

• July’s  Tornado Recovery Workshop and September’s  Lifetime of Learning Conference, which brought together students, educators, and community partners to talk about poverty and long-term tornado recovery. Thank you for ensuring that the structural causes of poverty are addressed in rebuilding efforts.

We have just 5 more days to raise $4,536.   Please ensure that we have the resources to continue our work together by making a contribution today.

Thank you,

Kristina Scott

Executive Director

Alabama Poverty Project

In July, more than 90 Alabama, Auburn and AUM students put aside their schools’ rivalries to build two Habitat for Humanity houses in Tuscaloosa’s Holt community. All but a handful of the approximately 100 homes in Holt were destroyed by the April 27 tornadoes.

“We built two houses for some very deserving families, put all rivalry aside with Alabama, and came together as friends,” said Auburn grad student Taylor Gunter, who led the Auburn team.

Volunteers worked on the homes of Reddy and Rosie Rowe, of Rosie’s Café and Catering and Cleaning Service, and Dana Dowling, mother of ten children. They laid the homes’ foundations, painted siding, constructed doors and walls, and put on roofing.

The completed homes also include a FEMA-certified safe room: a plywood structure plated with metal and bolted into the foundation. It is independent of the rest of the home.

Ralph Foster, APP volunteer board member and Auburn’s public service director, told the Tuscaloosa News, “Both universities do wonderful work to improve the quality of life in our state. This is a great example of that.”

House United was a joint effort by the Auburn University Outreach Office of Public Service, the Alabama Association of Habitat for Humanity Affiliates, and The University of Alabama Community Service Center to begin the community’s rebuilding process.

Holt was just the first step in the House United partnership.  Taylor and other students, alumni and friends on the House United team are traveling to Baldwin County in March to build a Habitat home there.

Interested in joining the House United effort? Register for the Baldwin County trip at http://www.auburn.edu/outreach/news/habitat.htm

On August 23, 2011, APP had the immense pleasure of honoring our Co-Founder Wayne Flynt.

A sold-out crowd gathered at Woodlawn’s Woodrow Hall to celebrate the publication of Dr. Flynt’s memoir, Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives.

In his powerful testimony, Dr. Flynt captured the essence of his story.

“I am an historian.  I was shaped by a new way of telling history, telling the story from bottom up instead of top down, trying to convince ordinary people who didn’t even know they had a history that history happens to everyone because everyone has origins, struggles, failures, and victories.

“For me that consisted of public activism and university outreach, or taking Alabama history off the campus and to the people, out of the sanitized classroom and into the cacophonous public square. “

Dr. Flynt is a Professor Emeritus of History at Auburn University and a prolific writer with 12 books to his name, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Poor But Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites.

Dr. Flynt challenged and inspired the crowd to take the long view of his work – and our work – to make Alabama a better, more just place for us all.  As little as 50 years ago, Dr. Flynt said, that gathering of business leaders, activists, ministers, and just plain folk would never have taken place.

Imagine what can happen during the next 50 years.

Editorial Coverage on APP’s Evening in Honor of Wayne Flynt:

Jim Evans, Montgomery Advertiser, August 23, 2011, Alabama Voices: Flynt has been the state’s conscience

Bob Blalock, Birmingham News, August 28, 2011: Wayne Flynt keeps the faith, and provides it

Here’s where you come in-

We know Wayne Flynt has a huge fan club in Alabama, and we’d like this page to be a place where you can share why Wayne has had such an influence in your life.  Please leave a note in the comments.

Our Alabama Possible campaign is about the power we have to ensure every Alabamian achieves their potential.

That’s why we have teamed up with two Alabama treasures – Elkmont’s Belle Chèvre Cheese and Thomaston’s Alabama Rural Heritage Center – for our 2011 gift membership premium.

For your donation of $50 or more, we’ll mail your honoree a gift box with Belle Chèvre fromage blanc and the Rural Heritage Center’s Mama Nem’s red pepper jelly along with a special note acknowledging your gift and their membership in APP supporting of our work mobilizing Alabamians to eliminate poverty.

Order here by midnight on Tuesday, December 20, to make sure your gift arrives on time. Payment accepted via Paypal only. Call 205-939-1408 with any questions.

Along with their Advisor Dr. Humphrey Lee (top left), Phi Theta Kappa Officers Jerry Smith (top right) and Amy Beaver (bottom left) met with Community College Chancellor Dr. Freida Hill (bottom right) to ask for her support for their tuition reduction proposal.

After the April 27 tornadoes, Calhoun Community College Students Amy Beaver and Jerry Smith wanted to do something to address the long-term needs of tornado victims.

The two, who are both regional officers in the Phi Theta Kappa two-year honor society, met with other Alabama Phi Theta Kappa leaders at Shelton State a few days after the storms.  The Phi Theta Kappa group toured Tuscaloosa and talked about what they were doing at home to meet tornado victims’ short-term needs.

They knew that was not enough.

“We had been doing volunteer services in our neighborhoods, and we decided we wanted to do something that would help in the long-run,” said Amy, a business management major at Calhoun Community College and Phi Theta Kappa Regional Vice President.

They decided to take action by asking that the Alabama Community College System reduce tuition for students who lost their homes and/or jobs.  Educational attainment is closely linked to both economic security and resilience, and tuition costs can be a financial burden as students attempt to rebuild after natural disasters.

With the assistance of their Phi Theta Kappa Advisors, APP Volunteer Board Member and Northwest-Shoals Community College President Humphrey Lee and Athens State Transfer Coordinator Nora Lee, Amy and Jerry met with Community College System Chancellor Freida Hill in June.  At that meeting, they had a chance to talk with Dr. Hill about their experiences and asked for her support.

When we asked if Amy and Jerry were nervous, Amy quickly replied, “Dr. Hill made us feel like we were having a normal every day conversation.”

After securing Dr. Hill’s backing, the next step was to appear in front of the Alabama State Board of Education, which sets tuition for the two-year college system.

At the board’s July meeting, the members unanimously agreed to cut tuition in half for students who lost their homes or jobs due to the storms.

Smith, a pre-engineering major at Calhoun and Alabama Region Phi Theta Kappa president, said that the experience would help him advocate in the future.

He “learned how to take the right path,” Smith said, and credits Dr. and Mrs. Lee with helping them understand the chain of command.

Dr. Lee said, “Students can be very powerful delivering a message, especially when their passion is based on an area of great need.”

In April, APP had a community conversation at Notasulga United Methodist Church.

It is pretty easy these days to think about what divides us – whether it is the Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street, the wealth gap, where you stand on immigration, or the outcome of the Iron Bowl.

That’s exactly why our Alabama Possible campaign has brought people together to talk about our aspirations for our communities, the barriers we face in achieving those aspirations, and what actions individuals, leaders, and communities can take in turning possibilities into reality.

These conversations have been hosted by organizations, schools, and houses of worship around the state and have provided great insight into ways to create economic opportunity. Here’s a smattering of what we have learned so far:

• Workers need jobs that provide a living wage;
• The importance of access to good education, quality healthcare, and adequate transportation;
• The state’s 1901 Constitution and tax structure is perceived as a barrier to achieving economic opportunity;
• The community could provide more resources like job training and mentoring experiences; and
• Ending the notion that “the poor will always be with us” is an important step to ending these barriers.

Childcare, the penal system, diversity, and reliance on public benefits also came up in conversations.

What do you think?  How can Alabama communities and policy makers create and sustain economic opportunity?

The results of our conversations will be matched with data and presented to state policymakers, including the State Commission to Reduce Poverty.

Let your voice be heard by hosting an Alabama Possible community conversation. We will come to your worship group, civic organization, or classroom.

Contact Kristina Scott at 205.939.1408 or kscott@alabamapoverty.org for more information.

Hannah, Kristina and Nicole at the Blueprints table in NCAN’s Best Practices Gallery

Here’s a guest post from Blueprints founder Nicole Bohannon:

Earlier this month, Kristina, Hannah, and I had the opportunity to attend the National College Access Network’s (NCAN) annual conference in St. Louis to share experiences from Blueprints College Access Initiative and learn from other college access providers around the nation.

From breakout sessions sharing best practices for assessment and sustainability to inspiring plenary sessions and networking opportunities, the conference provided for an incredible time of learning and growth that will undoubtedly prove valuable as we work to deepen the relationships with our Blueprints partners and their communities.

During the conference, we also had the privilege of presenting Blueprints at NCAN’s Best Practices Gallery, which focused on best practices in helping diverse student groups access and success in college. We were thrilled to share information about what Blueprints is doing in Alabama with over 600 conference attendees.

One of the most important things we learned was the power of state and local college access networks.  These networks work to get more 21^st century students into and through college, and by leveraging their collective impact they are able to create large-scale social change for student success. Alabama does not currently have a college access network, and that is something we aim to change over the next year.

The NCAN conference was a wonderful learning opportunity, but even more so, a motivator to see the ground we must make up in college attainment in the state of Alabama. Increasing college access is vital to fighting poverty in Alabama, and we couldn’t do it without your help.

Want to learn more about best practices to increase college access?  Some of the conference sessions are posted in the virtual conference section here, and many of the presentation handouts are available here.

Want to get involved with Blueprints? Here’s how:

• Organize college visits with local high school students: email Hannah Selles to get started.
• Become a mentor: connect with Blueprints programs currently underway in Tuscaloosa (at the University of Alabama), Marion (through Judson College), Montevallo (at the University of Montevallo) and Birmingham (with UAB).
• Help cover the costs of materials and staffing with your financial gift.
  

Published:  Monday, August 22, 2011, 7:04 PM

By James L. Evans — The Montgomery Advertiser

I’ve bumped into some interesting nicknames during my life. Because I was tall and thin, friends used to call me “string bean.” My best friend in high school was known as dirty Eddie — which is a whole other story.

But how would you like to be known as the “Conscience of Alabama?” For many years now, that has been the descriptive nickname for Wayne Flynt.

For nearly 40 years Flynt has confronted the racism and the accompanying poverty in Alabama with a courageous and informed passion. Using his skills as a historian, and a disciplined analytical mind, Wayne has chronicled not only the effects of poverty, but also its sources.

Rooted in an unjust and overtly racist constitution, fueled by powerful vested economic interests, the “least of these” in Alabama have been systematically held in a subservient way of life that is nothing short of embarrassing.

And Wayne has made no small bones about this issue in a so-called Bible belt state.He is quick to point out that the Bible has over 2500 references to God’s concern for the poor and the needy — the widow and the orphan in our midst. For a region to claim for itself to be the buckle of the Bible belt, while at the same to time to so egregiously ignore the needs of the needy, well, the conscience of Alabama finds that unconscionable.

Wayne’s memoir, published by the University of Alabama press and which is about to be released, details his pilgrimage through these concerns. The title captures his true motivation — “Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives.” Having known Wayne now for nearly 20 years, and serving as his pastor for the past seven years, I can say with some certainty that his concern for the plight of the poor is almost entirely informed by his faith.

Growing up in poverty, and near poverty, has the effect of creating sensitivity about the pain of poverty. But Wayne took matters a few steps farther. Not only does he chronicle what it feel likes to be poor, but he also discloses the insidious powers that lie behind our economic system that not only creates poverty, but that also works to keep the poor in their place.

It is saddening to learn how much the prosperity of some depends on the dearth of others.

Of course, poverty is not Wayne’s only concern as he sketches out the contours of his prophetic and professional career. He also spends a considerable amount of space detailing the failings of higher education in Alabama, especially as it relates to college sports.

There is probably not an area more revealing of America’s preoccupation with misplaced priorities than there is with sports. We spend millions of dollars on football and football coaches while highly trained and skilled public school teachers hardly make enough to sustain themselves and their families. We make millionaires out of sports stars while English teachers have to work summers at department stores in order to pay their mortgages.

Wayne is relentless in exposing the injustice, if not the foolishness of these values.

His reward, for all these decades of prophetic critique, is to have earned the ire of big business, vested interests, and of course university luminaries.

The amazing thing for me, in the midst of all this, is to have experienced Wayne’s humility. For a person who has had the courage to take on the powerful economic interests in Alabama, and the powerful interests of higher education, he remains an unassuming and soulful individual.

Wayne does not fight the battles he fights for personal gain or self-advancement. He fights these battles because he believes these are the battles that need to be fought — especially by people of faith.

Jesus said, apparently on more than one occasion, “Blessed are the poor.” He said these words because the wisdom of his day kept saying that the poor were poor because of their own sin.

That myth continues right into the present — the poor are poor because they choose to be poor. But Jesus knew that it was not true. He knew, as people like Wayne Flynt know, that sometimes people are poor because they are victims of unjust economic systems that favor the wealthy and the powerful in our midst. And to the extent that we participate in blaming the poor for their poverty, we make it possible for the privileged around us to protect their privilege and maintain the least of these in our midst in their desperation.

According to Wayne Flynt, it is ordinary people of faith, who keep the faith, who have the best chance of changing this.

It has always been so.

James L. Evans is pastor of Auburn First Baptist Church where Wayne Flynt is a member and Sunday school teacher. Flynt is being honored tonight in Birmingham by the Alabama Poverty Project.

Published: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 5:45 AM

Retired Auburn professor Wayne Flynt has written a memoir, “Keeping the Faith, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives.”

By Bob Blalock — The Birmingham News

© 2011 al.com. All rights reserved.

Hunger impacts children’s ability to concentrate, learn in school

Nearly one-third, or 32 percent, of households with children in Alabama reported not having enough money to buy food that they or their family needed at some point during the prior twelve months, according to a new report released by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), Food Hardship in America 2010: Households with and without Children.

This report provides data on food hardship – the inability to afford enough food. During 2009-10:

• 32 percent of Alabama households with children said they were unable to afford enough food, the second highest among the 50 states.
• The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) households with children had a food hardship rate of 23.4 percent in 2010, the 10^th highest rate among the nation’s 100 largest MSAs.
• In the 7^th Congressional District, 45.0 percent of households with children reported food hardship, the highest in the state and the 3^rd highest in the nation.
• In the 1^st Congressional District, 34.8 percent of households with children reported food hardship, the 2^nd highest in the state and the 19^th highest in the nation.
• In the 2^nd Congressional District, 33.1 percent of households with children reported food hardship, 3^rd highest in the state and the 32^nd highest in the nation.

“When children don’t have enough to eat, they have a harder time concentrating and performing well in school,” said Kristina Scott, Executive Director of the Alabama Poverty Project.  “Research indicates that for young children, even mild undernutrition negatively impacts their behavior, their school performance, and their overall cognitive development.”

The data were gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Specific to this analysis, people were asked, “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” The data gathered by Gallup were analyzed by FRAC.

“Hunger is not always visible, and thus people may be skeptical that it exists in their communities.  This report bears witness to the fact that Alabamians struggle to feed their families,” said Scott.

The full report is available at www.frac.org