Yesterday, I attended the Poverty Summit sponsored by the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Citizen Action Wisconsin, and WISDOM. It was energizing to be among 125 clergy, activists, and community leaders, all of whom care deeply about social and economic injustice.
Robert Kraig of Citizen Action WI and Jon Peacock of WCCF shared a PowerPoint presentation showing the growth in poverty and economic inequality and the devastating effects this has on children. One of the most striking pieces of information was the finding that children born into poverty show significantly less grey matter in their brains than more affluent children. How can our society expect people to pull themselves by the bootstraps when the very circumstances they are born into give them a deficit to begin with? I had the opportunity to share information with the participants on the Minimum Wage Challenge (starting Sunday! Sign up at http://wisconsinfaithvoicesforjustice.weebly.com/minimum-wage-challenge.html) and our upcoming Why Poverty? Economic Justice film festival (http://wisconsinfaithvoicesforjustice.weebly.com/).