Solution sought to Virginia poverty problem

Suggestions for solving poverty in the Lynchburg area Saturday ranged from the traditional, such as “early education is the key,” to the unusual, such as using solar power to “eliminate hunger, poverty and ignorance.”

Those proposals and more were offered to Virginia’s Poverty Reduction Taskforce, which gathered local ideas at 22 community colleges around the state Saturday in forums called “Act on Poverty.”

Virginia’s poverty rate is lower than the national average, but Lynchburg, with about 21 percent of its residents below the poverty level, is higher than the nation’s average, forum participants at Central Virginia Community College were told in a video presentation.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in the presentation that the percentage of Virginians receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families had been declining until May, but since then has jumped 13 percent.

Social-service workers in the Lynchburg area said they’re seeing the evidence of those trends, as people come into their offices who have never been there before to ask for help with rent and utility bills.

Cindy Kirkland of Lynchburg Social Services said her office is carrying 13,000 cases of people receiving assistance and many applicants who are told they don’t qualify for assistance never come back.

Kirkland said federal officials have noticed that only 65 percent of people who are eligible for food stamps are actually getting them.

Kirkland said Virginia’s conservative approach in setting income levels under which people can qualify for benefits should be changed. She compared it to “turning a battleship around.”

Fay Hicks of Lynchburg Community Action Group recommended reducing state requirements for the amount of time needed before benefits can start, in addition to setting new income-level minimums.

Beverly Floyd, of Lynchburg Community Action Group said, “Education, education, education is the answer.” Particularly, job training is needed that focuses on the kinds of jobs available locally, Floyd said.

Walter Fore of Lynchburg said, “We need a head start program,” meaning early childhood education. Also needed, Fore said, is “a living wage, not a minimum wage,” and a reduction in teen pregnancies that are overloading the welfare system. “We’ve got to do something about at-risk kids,” Fore said.

Chuck Tanner, a retired resident of Madison Heights, said poverty requires a radical solution and he suggested one. “We need to go to wind and solar power,” instead of using fossil fuels to power cars and homes, he said.

Learning to rely on solar power would “eliminate poverty and allow worldwide education,” Tanner said.

Dee Lewis, also of Lynchburg Community Action Group, said work programs that give teenagers something to do are needed and once were available before state funds were cut.

Lewis also recommended that child care and transportation be provided to single mothers who are trying to improve their education.

State laws that limit people’s ability to find jobs also were criticized.

W.E. Clark III, a retired Lynchburg teacher, said assistance programs won’t help until “we lend a listening ear” to people who are upset because of employment standards that shut them out of jobs.

“If we don’t start being tolerant, all this education won’t mean a thing,” Clark said.

Rick Varilla of Campbell County Social Services in Rustburg had four suggestions he’d like to deliver in a two-minute talk with the governor:

The state should put more resources into head start and other early childhood education programs.

Vehicle ownership programs such as “Ways to Work” are needed in rural areas because public transportation is effective only in cities;

Public libraries are becoming more significant as the places people go to learn where jobs can be found;

Economic development programs should focus on providing skilled-labor jobs that don’t require a college education, such as for electricians and auto mechanics.