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June - July, 2008
To Whom It May Concern
by Lina Trivedi
Upon reading the Employment and Training Report that
was prepared for the Allied Task Force, I wanted to extend my
appreciation to those who participated in the production of the
comprehensive report that serves to coordinate many of the great
services available to residents on Allied Drive.
As an Allied Drive-city property resident with formal
and informal experience with employment and job development for Allied
Drive residents, I had one thought that I wanted to share with the
Task Force to consider working into the report.
I have worked for nearly three years helping Allied Drive-area
residents connect with employment opportunities working as a job
developer to support employment and training staff on Allied Drive,
and also as a resident, I have socialized with many of my neighbors
through the years. One observation that I have made is that even with
best programs and the best resources, it is very hard to meet
employment objectives without addressing the need for a shift in
cultural and societal values among my
neighbors.
I have participated in professional and personal outreach among many
communities on Allied Drive, including the expansive Latino and Asian
communities. It saddens me that although ethnic cultures and even the
languages we speak can be so different, one thing can remain so
constant - many of us are in a crisis/survival mode that causes us to
fail to look at the big picture. We are often so focused on the
crisis of the day, whether it be the threat of our lights being turned
off or an eviction notice, or any other such mishap, we often fail to
have to ability to look three years down the line and make decisions
that would benefit our long-term future.
More times than I can count, I have witnessed my neighbors not showing
up to work because they were offered a one-day job that offered cash
on the spot. It may not make sense to an outsider looking in, but it
is very likely that individual needed cash today, and waiting for a
first paycheck in two weeks was not feasible for the crisis being
dealt with today. I have been in similar crunches, and in hindsight
of my own situations, I can think of many responsible ways I could
have responded to the crisis at hand that would have prevented
financial devastation caused by things such as payday loans.
However, when you are in the heat of the moment within
an air of crisis caused by being around so many other people who are
also in the midst of a crisis, there is a lack of sound rationale to
help us navigate around financial emergencies so we often make
decisions without fully evaluating the long-term impact of our
decisions.
They say that the average American is two paychecks away from being
homeless. I firmly believe that many Allied residents are only one
paycheck away, and I speak of this from experience. In the three
years that I have lived in what is now the city-owned properties, the
financial fires I put out are barely at bay. My income is not the
issue, rather the errors in judgment I made in my past haunt me
constantly. Many of my neighbors have similar skeletons, whether it
be enormous restitution fees owed to the courts, or child-support that
is backed up to five-figure amounts.
Our past skeletons serve as barriers in allowing us to
move forward in more ways than one, and just getting a good job is not
the full answer. Many of my neighbors have tried to go back to school
but were ineligible for student aid due to past defaulted students
loans. We can’t legally drive because of thousands of dollars owed to
the state for various past driving violations. We need financial
education to help us learn how to legitimately navigate around these
issues, many of which have easy solutions that we could easily learn
with the right training.
The line between our day-to-day survival and being homeless and
penniless is very fine here. In many of these situations, income is
not the issue. I, along with many of my neighbors have household
incomes (sometimes reportable, sometimes not reportable) exceeding
$50k per year, however if our liabilities exceed our income, it really
does not matter, we are all still in a big hole.
In my opinion, if we are unable to manage our income and expenses
while making $10k per year, it is highly unlikely that our spending
habits or our money management skills will improve with more money.
It is necessary for all of us to gain an understanding of how to
really manage money, and furthermore, how to effectively build
wealth. Many of the crisis situations my neighbors and I experience
are rooted in finances.
If we can somehow invest some time and energy in
teaching ourselves good financial habits, many of those crises will be
eliminated, and perhaps we will make sound financial decisions that
will impact our long-term future. There are many financial literacy
programs in Madison, and there are also many successful residents on
Allied Drive that have gone from making $8/hour to $15/hour in less
than a year. All these individuals need to be identified and I think
that they would be instrumental in helping their neighbors achieve
similar successes.
In conclusion, I would say that we need two things: firstly, residents
need counseling to determine if full-time hours are feasible for them
within the lifestyle they are currently living within. If not, then a
part-time job could be springboarded into a full-time opportunity
after several months of easing into a job centered lifestyle.
Secondly, financial literacy training that relates to
the residents and responds to the sorts of crisis we face is
required. I would urge the program to include education that would
help residents proactively respond to festering situations before they
explode and ultimately exercise sound judgments in the future on their
own.
Thank you for considering my ideas and I look forward to seeing the
fruits of our labor!
Lina Trivedi is community activist and free-lance writer. Her writings
are also found in the India Journal.
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