I’ve been looking into the county’s efforts around poverty. I was going to give them a report card on the Task Force on Poverty Report, but of course, its near impossible to do on-line research on this so it is taking quite some time . . . but here’s what I’ve found that I can share so far.
2007
County creates the Task Force on Poverty in December.
2008
Task force appointed and start meeting in September, 9 months later.
2009
Task force creates report and finalizes it in November, in a little over one year.
2010
Human Services Board starts to talk about the report and recommendations in August, 10 months after the report came out.
2011
Human Services Board continues to talk about report and recommendations at over a dozen meetings – 2 years since the report came out.
2012
Human Services Board plans to continue talking about report and recommendations.
WHY SO SLOW
It’s 4 years later and as far as I can tell, nothing has changed, the county board hasn’t seriously addressed the issues in the report or done even the simplest of the recommendations in the report that they approved. I’ve invited several supervisors to make their case that this is not true – and I hope that they can. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.
The report is 13 pages and has 9 recommendations. Yes, poverty is a big topic and its complicated, but we’ve wasted over 4 years spinning our wheels instead of making something new and different happen. And a couple of the recommendations are simple and don’t cost money. Of course, the Human Service Department deals with this every day, and have cut community services every year – moving backwards. So, its not that nothing that is happening, but during this 4 year period, poverty increased in Dane County. 2009 13.1% Article here. Consider this –
There were 132,000 household visits to Dane County Food Pantries in 2010. This represents a 56% increase over visits in 2007. 152,000 children were served in 2010. -Dane County Food Pantry Network 2010 Year End Service Statistics
I’m going to continue looking into this and sharing what information I can find. Meanwhile, here’s the recommendations:
1. Consider the impact on people in poverty before any decisions (finance, zoning, ordinances, resolutions and otherwise) are made by the Dane County Board
-Include low-income people as citizen appointees on committees – not just ones that concentrate on poverty issues
– Include “Impact on Dane County residents in poverty” sections to Policy Analysis Statements attached to County Board resolutions and staff reports for Zoning and Land Regulation Committee applications2. Restore proposed cuts to vital Human Services Programs throughout Dane County and resolve to maintain or increase the level of investment in services.
3. Make the Task Force on Poverty a permanent commission.
4. Collaborate with municipal and school leaders to maximize resources for households affected by poverty.
5. Ensure that future transportation plans include practical and affordable options for people in poverty to improve access to jobs and services.
6. Transportation planning for senior services must include access to no-cost food options for older adults, like community meals, pantries or farmer’s markets, Make a affordable transportation available for those who need it.
7. Support the expansion of community and pantry gardens to enable more people to grow their own food. Community gardens have proven to be an effective community development tool to strengthen communities while increasing access to locally grown food.
8. Dane County Leaders should use the Wisconsin Elder Economic Security Standard Index Report, July 2008, to evaluate current policies and consider developing and promoting equitable and rational public policies.
9. Adopt a self-sufficiency matrix to measure progress out of poverty. This matrix could be used by the public, private and non-profit sectors to track progress and make course corrections in programming and services.
