Tackling Poverty After School

In the Lehigh Valley, as in the nation as a whole, inner-city youth are faced with the challenges of overcrowded schools, crime-ridden streets and limited resources for personal development.

On the national scale, according to the Allentown COMPASS Community School, 21 million Americans cannot read at all, and one-fifth of high school graduates fall into this category. In Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, students face crowded classrooms with little individual attention, and literacy is falling in consequence. The COMPASS Community School’s fact sheet explains that more than one fourth of all third graders—793 students—tested in Bethlehem and Allentown are both economically disadvantaged and not reading at the correct grade level.

Additionally, nearly 45 percent of Allentown youth live in poverty, and in 2005, nearly 600 students in the Allentown School District were homeless for some portion of the school year. In the area’s three urban COMPASS campuses, 40 to 98 percent of the student body (depending on the school as well as other factors) are eligible for the Free and Reduced lunch program. Additionally, five out of ten area COMPASS sites offer students the Back Pack Buddies program, through which students are sent home with back packs filled with food for the weekend.

Photos in video courtesy of Lehigh University CSO

Given these facts, afterschool programs are charged with the task of offering students a safe, fun environment where they can focus on personal and interpersonal growth—a refuge away from the streets. The Lehigh University Community Service Office and the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown are two local organizations looking to empower youth and offer new opportunities for children and teens in the Lehigh Valley. Through educational and recreational programs, both the CSO and BGCA of Allentown  strive to give every child an equal opportunity for success, especially in a climate of widening socioeconomic disparity.

Courtesy of Lehigh University CSO

Josh Leight, a graduate assistant in the CSO, organizes Lehigh’s unit of the federally funded afterschool homework program America Reads/Counts. Lehigh students are encouraged to work or volunteer within the program and join the group of almost one hundred annual tutors.

“Through the Community Service Office we reach out to children in South Bethlehem who are by far and large in poverty in many, many different ways," Leight said. "The biggest way we do that is through our America Reads/Counts program…[it] connects Lehigh tutors to over 100 children and students in South Bethlehem at Fountain Hill Elementary School and Broughal Middle School. I place about one hundred tutors at three different homework clubs.…Our tutors this year alone have provided over 5,000 hours of tutoring to children in South Bethlehem.”

Leight also offered insight into some of the CSO’s other main goals with Lehigh Valley youth.

“Some of our other main focuses…are to provide a safe place for kids to be. Kids living in South Bethlehem don’t have all that many great locations to go to after school, and if we can provide a safe space for them…we definitely take that opportunity to keep them focused on academics and also to get homework help and to meet with Lehigh students who are their neighbors that they might not know very well.”

He continued, “If they can see themselves as going to college, if they link to one individual Lehigh student and say, ‘I want to be like that guy,’ or ‘that girl’ and that involves going to college, we made a huge difference for that one kid.”

Lehigh’s CSO also hosts events like Spooktacular in the fall semester and Spring Fling towards the end of the academic year. Both events bring Bethlehem families onto Lehigh’s campus, where Lehigh students interact with and host activities for members of the Bethlehem community. Leight explained that at every program offered—from America Reads/Counts to events like Spooktacular and Spring Fling—food is always offered to students.

Courtesy of the BGCA of Allentown

In Allentown, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America has a host of locations offering different services to area youth. Nayab Khan is the director of the 6th Street unit, the largest of Allentown’s collection of clubs. The 6th Street club offers students computer labs, a game room, two libraries and an indoor swimming pool. Most importantly, however, the club offers students a safe, productive space where they can grow and develop as individuals and as members of a larger community.

“One of our main goals is making sure that children after school have a safe place, have a positive place,” said Khan. “And our motto for years in the BGCA…is that this is a place where you can be great, and this is where great futures start.”

Mainly an afterschool program, the BGCA of Allentown opens its doors at 3:30 every day, offering programming for children through the age of 11 until 7:15 p.m., as well as special teen hours until 9:30 p.m. Through educational services like tutoring, as well as recreational activities to keep students coming back and off the streets, the BGCA of Allentown aims to give its members—who pay just $15 per year for the club’s services—an equal opportunity that the area’s school and economic environments might not otherwise allow them.

One unique service that the 6th Street branch offers is FYI—Family-Youth Intervention. FYI supervisor John Eisenreich, Jr., explained the program, in which the United Way or county pinpoint certain children who are in particular need of the BGCA’s services.

Through a United Way grant, these students are then given a membership to the BGCA, along with additional attention and support. Transportation, for example, is a hindrance to many students getting to the clubs after school, explained Eisenreich, but through the FYI program, staff workers are able to shuttle students to and from the BGCA, ensuring they are in a safe environment after school.

The Allentown BGCA currently aids two FYI students identified by the United Way or county as in need of the program, and ten others are on the FYI program through a United Way grant that allows the BGCA itself to pinpoint children they feel are in need of extra assistance. The program makes certain that students in high-need situations—those involving domestic issues, for example—are given the attention, guidance and resources they need for an equal opportunity to succeed.

Khan said, “Let’s face it—at the end of the day, would we want our children out on the streets or in a safe space, a positive space?”

Khan is hopeful that the BGCA mission will empower and help youth to make a difference in their communities down the road.

“Overall, I hope long-term it would help the economic cycle and if they’re educated citizens, if they’re global ctizens who are caring members of their community, the hope is long term they will go back and contribute to their societies and their communities,” she said.”

By Jess Fromm and Melissa Collins 

Organizations Combating Poverty in the Lehigh Valley

Poverty is a serious problem running through the Lehigh Valley.  While the Valley offers a great array of restaurants, shops and services, many of its residents are unable to take advantage of them as a result of their economic disadvantages.

Nearly one in five children in the Lehigh Valley are living in poverty.  In Allentown, two in five children are living in poverty.  That’s 43.8% - an extremely high rate.

According to The United Way, a non-profit organization consisting of volunteers and contributors that serve their communities, 27% of all third graders tested in the Lehigh Valley are both economically disadvantaged and have reading capabilities below their grade level.  The same was found for 31% of all seventh graders and 31% of all eleventh graders in the Lehigh Valley.  Similarly, of all Hispanic seventh graders who were tested, 50% of them were not reading at their grade level.

In 2005, nearly 600 students in the Allentown School District were homeless for some portion of the year.

Clearly, a great amount of Lehigh Valley residents have been affected by poverty in some way.  However, there are several organizations that are making great strides towards improving the lives of these people.

One of these organizations is the United Way.  Mark Margherita, the outreach coordinator for the community schools of the Bethlehem school district, acknowledges that poverty is a serious issue in the area.

“The poverty situation in the Lehigh Valley is actually a lot more serious than a lot of times a lot of people think,” he said. “Broughal Middle School, which is right here next to Lehigh’s Campus, has about 90% of the students on free and reduced lunch.”

Margherita explains that reduced lunch at schools is a prime indicator that families are living at or below the poverty line.

He also says that many of the Lehigh Valley’s food pantries and homeless shelters are reaching capacity without being able to serve all the residents that are in need.

As a result, the United Way has created a system to try to combat these issues.

“We focus on three main objectives that we have for the Lehigh Valley,” Margherita said.  “The first of those is older adults being as independent as possible.  The second area we focus on is youth graduating from high school.  The third area that we focus on is Lehigh Valley residents having access to their basic needs.”

Another group working towards improving poverty levels in the Lehigh Valley is Reading Rocks. As a coordinator for the program this year, Lehigh University Senior, Allie Einsidler believes that this program provides students in the local Bethlehem area an opportunity to improve reading levels that are currently much below average.

“Some students in the reading program can be as old as 13, because their reading levels are so behind,” said Einsidler. “It also does so in a way that they can be mentored by Lehigh students, since they look up to them.”

One of the moments that Einsidler recalled during mentoring for Reading Rocks was being told, “’If the kids start opening up about personal things at home, of a bad nature, just sit there and nod.’ This was an eye opener to me, because I have never really been forced to look beyond my own personal situations.”

Unfortunately, this poor reading level is a huge determinant of where students will end up in five to ten years, and lack of quality education is a factor in the poverty level in the Lehigh Valley.

Yet, both Margherita and Einsidler seem to be optimistic about the progression of the Lehigh Valley’s economic status in the past few years. Residents have been recently able to lower the unemployment level, education has seemed to improve with the help of programs like Reading Rocks, and motivation to rise above the poverty level is prevalent among a majority of Bethlehem citizens. 

Poverty in the Lehigh Valley -- New Bethany Ministries

In the Lehigh Valley, 15% of individuals live below the poverty line. New Bethany Ministries, located at 339 W. 4th Street in Bethlehem, feeds over 150 of these people each day in its meal center and provides groceries for over 300 families each month.

New Bethany Ministries celebrated its 25th year of servicing the community this past July. Their website will tell you that their mission is "to provide care, services and facilities to the homeless, the hungry, the mentally ill and the poor with a level of quality that exceeds that of secular agencies."  The volunteers and members will all tell you that New Bethany Ministries fulfills that mission and much more.

The main building houses the family shelter, the food pantry, single rooms, administrative offices, and the Mollard Hospitality Center (a drop-in center offering day shelter, socialization, showers, clothing vouchers, telephone access, mailing services, hot meals, and 12-step support groups to homeless individuals). The Mollard Hospitality Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Breakfast is served from 8 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. every day, and lunch is served weekdays from 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.

Fiona Byrne, the Assistant Director at the Hospitality Center, said that despite the influx of people in need since the economic recession, only 15 people work at New Bethany Ministries. However, they are very lucky to have such a large group of volunteers: in 2011 alone, New Bethany had 778 volunteers for a total of 13,670 volunteer hours.

New Bethany Ministries is also the only provider of transitional housing for families in Northampton County. Families that have seen drastic financial struggles (such as losing a job suddenly) can live in transitional housing from 6 months to 1 year.

John Retliford has been volunteering at New Bethany Ministries for 12 years and lives in the Rooney Building on the South Side for 1/3 of the typical rent price. He enjoys volunteering because it gives him something to do and helps him to meet new and interesting people.

When asked what he would do if he won the lottery, Retliford said, "I would give it away mostly. I couldn't use all that money. Rich people -- they're not happy. They might think they are because they have money, but money is the root of all evil."

Despite the struggles many of the people at New Bethany Ministries face, they all have very positive attitudes and are thankful for the services they are provided with.

Zoraiva Muniz has been going with her husband to New Bethany Ministries for about 8 months. She had a stroke two years ago that left her blind and paralyzed on the left side of her body.

Muniz and her husband have had financial difficulties since her stroke because she can't work."So I live off Social Security and Welfare, Medicaid," Muniz said. "My husband doesn't get paid for taking care of me. He's supposed to but he doesn't."

Economically, Muniz and Retliford both say that they wouldn't categorize themselves as really poor. They both think they are at a mid-level across the nation.

To sum up, Muniz said, "This is a beautiful place, it's a blessing. This place, it's God. God will bless us."

Victory House: How Poverty, Homelessness and Unequal Employment Opportunities Have Affected Men in the Lehigh Valley

Victory House is a non-profit, community-based organization, which caters to homeless men and veterans, located in Bethlehem, PA.

Victory House has significantly expanded since it was opened in 1985, and currently offers 40 beds to homeless men and veterans.  When executive director Pat DiLuzio began working at Victory House in 1999, there were only 28 beds.  The expansion to victory house occurred between 2006 and 2007 due to the higher demand after the economy took a downward turn.

"In the last several years, we've seen an increase in the number of clients coming through Victory House," DiLuzio said.  "We've seen an increase in the number of veterans we served.  So like in last year [2011] we saw 113 men come through victory house, and I believe it was 50 of them who were veterans."

DiLuzio said the economy in the past two to three years has caused low wages, resulting in poverty and forcing many clients of Victory House to become unable to afford housing.  DiLuzio said other problems that land men and veterans in Bethlehem in shelters such as Victory House include medical issues and inability to afford medical insurance, along with drug and alcohol problems.

Victory House has 19 transitional housing beds, which are occupied by clients who will be staying at Victory House for an extended period of time and 21 emergency shelter beds, which are used in emergency cases.  DiLuzio said there is a waiting list for beds in Victory House, and in the last six to eight months they have been close to full capacity.

DiLuzio said veterans typically stay at Victory House longer than other men due to particular issues they have such as post-traumatic stress disorder.  On average, veterans will stay at Victory House for about seven or eight months but sometimes up to a year.  Non-veterans typically occupy a transitional bed at Victory House for about four months.

Ron Zigler, a veteran client of Victory House, said homelessness due to unemployment has caused him to end up in the shelter.  Despite his qualifications and certifications in forklift operations, warehouse logistics and chemical mixing, Zigler has been unable to find a stable job that would allow him to escape poverty.  Zigler said he has a specifically hard time finding a job due to a minor criminal record he has, resulting from a simple assault charge.

DiLuzio said the population of homeless veterans in the Lehigh Valley is very close to the number of homeless veterans on the national scale.  According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 23 percent of the homeless population are veterans.  However, DiLuzio said many veterans do not look for assistance despite their impoverished lifestyles, and therefore there is no way to get an exact number of homeless veterans in the Lehigh Valley.

Non-veteran clients of Victory House often end up there due to alcohol and drug abuse issues.  DiLuzio said though Victory House caters to men between the ages of 18 to 65, the average age of clients is between 35 and 40.

"Typically, that's the individual who has maybe been in and out of rehab centers, have been homeless for a while, in and out of hospitals for medical reasons dealing with mental health," DiLuzio said.  "And at some point in time anybody who has been addicted to drugs or alcohol comes to the conclusion that they cannot continue that way anymore because they've lost their family, they've lost their job, they've lost their house, they've lost everything."

DiLuzio said the biggest challenges clients of Victory House face after leaving include staying drug and alcohol free, affording health insurance, finding affordable housing and finding employment.

Donald Smith, a non-veteran client of Victory House, has been living there for a month.  He said his mental disabilities (bipolar disorder and ADHD) along with an abusive relationship caused him to end up homeless.  After thinking about committing suicide, Smith checked himself into a hospital, and is currently in the transitional period at Victory House.

"I have a very strong work ethic, but I have a hard time with people giving me a chance," Smith said.  "If they just could see me work and not worry about my past, I would feel a lot better."

DiLuzio said there are eight homeless shelters in the Lehigh Valley, but there are still approximately 2700 men, women and children that remain on the streets within the area.  He said the Lehigh Valley could use more shelters, but housing is the issue.  DiLuzio said the Lehigh County Housing Authority is probably doing the best they can with the resources they have, but more funding is necessary to get homeless people off the streets, into the shelters and eventually into affordable housing.