During the last couple of months for my Language Arts class, I have worked on a project to answer the question “What attributes lead to poverty in Clarkston?”
This question came to mind after reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. In this classic, Lee illustrated the characteristics in different people based on how they treat others, how they acted about their situation, and what they did to overcome their issues.
These characteristics caused me to consider the idea there’s more to poverty than what meets the eye. In order to look further into this issue, I turned to Lighthouse of Oakland County, which is a non-profit organization providing emergency food and housing to low income families in Clarkston.
By contacting the Lighthouse in Clarkston, I was able to investigate this topic and realize how our town of Clarkston can help.
To answer my question, I first looked at the leading causes of poverty, which are low paying jobs, and Social Security not paying enough for the disabled.
Many times people are working, but it is not enough to thrive in Oakland County. Considering one adult needs to have an annual income of at least $21,209 before taxes to live in Oakland County, and if you are disabled social security only pays about $12,992 annually.
These numbers really impacted me as it goes to show how hard someone has to work in order to provide basic needs in order to survive. I also was very saddened as it can be really hard if you are disabled to find a job that you can do in order to make up the extra money needed.
It just does not seem right to me that somebody without the same opportunities as most people may be put into this unfavorable situation where they cannot provide for themselves.
In order to help this issue, there are places such as Salvation Army where you can donate used items to be sold at a cheaper price. This is a great way of helping as it can help someone when money is tight.
I also discovered education can create a big difference as to whether or not you have more or less money.
As we know, a better education typically leads to a higher paying job and without a proper education it can lead to lower paying jobs, which once again places people in a bad position financially.
One of the best ways to help this issue is directly through Clarkston schools, as their many projects such as “Blessings in a Backpack” which you can volunteer at, or “Sarah’s Secret Closet.”
This year as well, science teachers at Clarkston High School picked families to help over the holiday season, which students could donate to. There’s many opportunities like these at all of the Clarkston schools and can really make an impact in somebody’s life, and change their future.
Poverty is a very unfortunate thing and I feel it is necessary to do all we can as a community to help. With the Clarkston area’s about seven percent poverty rate, there are many different opportunities for us to help others: from canned food drives, to monetary donations. It is very simple to help out and many people’s actions can lead to a big movement. Personally, I have enjoyed helping out whenever I can.
When I was younger, I was a Girl Scout and we volunteered at Lighthouse’s food pantry.
More recently, this summer during Impact weekend I helped landscape for Habitat for Humanity; which is another great organization that helps to provide cheaper homes for lower income families.
One action can make a huge difference and is a great way to make Clarkston an outstanding place for all.
Megan Ford is a 10th grade student at Clarkston High School, working on a RED, Relevant, Experimental, and Demonstrative, project based on the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” in her Language Arts class. Over the past couple of weeks, she has been researching this question and finding information to answer it. “For this project we need to publicly share our project with people outside of our classroom. For this part of the project I wanted to see if I could publish an article in the Clarkston News, sharing my findings and addressing this topic,” she said.