Definitions of Poverty in Scotland and the EU

"Poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a socieity at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society." --Scottish Poverty Information Unit "There are basically three current definitions of poverty in common usage: absolute poverty, relative poverty and social exclusion: Absolute poverty is defined as the lack of sufficient resources with which to keep body and soul together. "Relative poverty defines income or resources in relation to the average. It is concerned with the absence of material needs to participate fully in accepted daily life. "Social exclusion is a new term used by the Government. The Prime Minister described social exclusion as 'a shorthand label for what can happen when individuals or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown.' " The House of Commons Scottish Affairs Comittee "Persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in which they belong."

The European Union's working definition of poverty.

Robert Owen at New Larnark

Presumably, anyone who has seriously studied the history of social justice since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution is familiar with the name, Robert Owen. In my class on the history of the union movement at Brown University, we learned about Owen as one of the myriad of social reformers whose work influenced present-day working conditions. Yet, it was only after a visit to New Larnark, Scotland (forty minutes by train, from our flat), that his story came alive. Owen believed that the environment in which one lives and works is critical to the formation of character. As the manager and subsequently the owner of textile mills, he was appalled by the way some workers were being treated -- children as young as five or six working thirteen hours a day in miserable factories. When he was able to buy the New Lanark mills from his father-in-law, David Dale, in 1800, he set about creating a just environment that would lead to strong character. He believed that "that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold." Thanks to Owen's innovations, the 2,500 people (workers and their families) who lived in New Lanark were provided adequate housing, with child-care centers and schools for the children from age 3, and available for all the residents for a life time, with free health care in company clinics, with cultural and recreational activities and a village store that bought in bulk and sold at cost. All this in the expectation that a good environment contributes to peace and harmony. Many of his entrepreneurial peers were critical, questioning why he would sacrifice some of his own profits to benefit his workers. But his values were different. "The governing principle of trade, manufactures and commerce is immediate pecuniary gain, to which on the great scale, every other is made to give way. All are sedulously trained to buy cheap and sell dear; and to succeed in this art, the parties must be taught to acquire strong powers of deception, destructive of that open, honest sincerity without which man cannot make others happy , nor enjoy happiness themselves." (1816) During those years he wrote and spoke extensively, hoping that his vision would change the industrial landscape throughout Great Britain. In 1825 he left New Lanark in order to give full time to promoting his reform movement. Opposition from contemporary capitalists mounted, with enough strength to eviscerate the reform legislation that he had promoted in Parliament. Undaunted, he established a utopian community in New Harmony, Illinois, hoping the New World would be more receptive to his reforms. Robert Owen is today called the father of socialism, and is remembered as a pioneer in public education as well as the founder of the cooperative movement. He is also the co-founder of the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, a trade movment union that failed because of opposition from the government. All this is vividly communicated in a visit to the beautifully restored factory village of New Lanark. The school house, the factory, the village store, the health clinic and the worker's housing are all still there to visit. Some of the looms still operate, making yarn of great value. So much to be learned! Our struggle for economic equality has a long and glorious history and we can be proud to continue the campaign for justice to which others have contributed so massively. We may not totally share Owen's optimism in the perfectibility of human character, but I would rather cast my lot with him than with another Scotsman who believed that an invisible hand, operating in a free market economy, would bring about social and economic justice. THE PROBLEM IS WEALTH, NOT POVERTY: A comment from Thomas Wooler in Black Dwarf, 1817. "It is very amusing to hear Mr. Owen's talk of remoralizing the poor. Does he not think that the rich are a little more in wnat of remoralizing, and particularly that class of them that has contributed to demoralize the poor, if they are demoralized, by supporting measures that have made them poor and which now continue them poor and wretched?"

Margo Uprichard

Whenever members of the Transformation Team speak, lead workshop and even when they lead worship services, they engage all the people in some kind exercise or action project. In the workshop picture below, Margo Uprichard, in the black sleeveless, is leading a workshop on worship. She has asked the people to write out a description of living conditions in their, mostly poor, neighborhoods, and on the other side of the river they have written elements of the worship of their congregation. The discussion asks how can people build a bridge between real life situations and the worship of the church.

A NEW APPROACH TO VOLUNTEETING

Margo Uprichard is Training and Development Worker with the Transformation Team. The primary goal of enlisting volunteers is to develop and build relationships across faith and economic lines --- quite different from the way we regard volunteers in the U.S. where we try to enlist someone to accomplish a task that needs to be done. Here, in Scotland, volunteers and projects are matched up with each other in a way that will be beneficial to both. Imagine, for example, connecting people with a successful employment history with projects operating in the poorest neighborhoods and supporting the two to work together so that tasks are completed, skills are transferred, insight is gained into the injustice and the challenges of poverty. Thus, people are given an opportunity to live out their faith in a very practical sense. The relationship supports each to grow in self-understanding, confidence and appreciation of the other.

Within the poorest areas self-esteem can be very low among residents, many of whom have never worked, and the move to volunteering can be the first step up the ladder to employment. People who don't recognize their own talents and skills and so feel ill-equipped to even consider employment, come to appreciate they have much to offer.

The national drive for helping people overcome exclusion from main stream society and set them on the road to employment is funded in part by the Scottish government's volunteer strategy, and this is actively encouraged by reimbursing volunteers's travel expenses, other out-of-pocket exenses and in some cases child care. The government also largely funds Volunteer Development Scotland, an umbrella organization established in 1984 and recognized as a center of excellence in all matters related to volunteering in Scotland.

Once a volunteer has registered with the Transformation Team, a program of mentoring and monitoring is put in place to support the relationship with the project and intervening when it makes sense to do so.

There are many more aspects of the volunteering process that I will write about later, as I learn more.

First Photos

This is the church where the Priority Areas office is located.

The Priority Areas Team (left to right) Martin Johnstone, Lynn MacLellan, Paul, Gayle, and Noel Mathias

This message was printed on the blackboard in our apartment when we first arrived.