Root Causes of Poverty Locally

• Lack of education, job skills, and knowledge to acquire jobs and remain employed.
• Lack of assets, particularly small capital, to generate employment and income.
• Lack of economic opportunities and access to capital, social services such as education, health care, and affordable housing.
• Prolonged economic slowdown, loss of businesses and industries, or economic stagnation that results in job loss and underemployment.
• Creation of dependency through safety nets to meet basic needs –“giving people fish without teaching them how to fish” that would result in self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
• The nexus of large families/ unemployment/underemployment, and lack of assets that results in a vicious circle of poverty or generational poverty.
• Lack of support for children and women at the household level in education, good nutrition, and health care.
• Loss of dignity and self-respect due to being caught in a poverty trap that undermines confidence, creates indifference, and generates fatalism.
• Failure of development initiatives to focus on root causes of poverty replication, sustainability, and impact on the quality of life.
• Failure to involve the poor in defining priorities and in finding solutions.

The United StatesPoverty in the United States [3] – U.S. Census Bureau
Poverty Analysis [3] – World BankSouth Carolina

U.S. Census Bureau Statistics on South Carolina [4]

News Stories about Poverty

March 21, 2009: A sign of hard times [5] Island Packet

March 9, 2009: SC unemployment rate hits 10% in January [6] – Forbes.com

December 11, 2008: SC unemployment expected to hit 14% by spring 2009 [7] – Associated Press

November 29, 2008: As the economy falls, requests to food banks soar. [8] – Island Packet

November 16, 2008: Rate of hunger among children rose 50% in 2007 [9] – Island Packet

November 15, 2008: SC layoffs at state agencies mean less support for the poor and disabled [10] – Beaufort Gazette

November 12, 2008: 12% of SC children have no health insurance [11] – Island Packet

November 10, 2008: History island church finds joy, hope in Obama presidency [12] – Island Packet

November 3, 2008: State budget ax falls on special needs home [13] – Island Packet

September 19, 2008: Community Organizers help folks overcome poverty/powerlessness [14] – Island Packet

July 1, 2008: Help native islanders preserve neighborhoods [15] – Island Packet, editorial

June 19, 2008: Hard times in the Lowcountry [16]… – Island Packet