Poverty is not a life style of choice
No one aspires to be poor yet one in four American workers — more than 30 million people — are working in jobs that pay less than the federal poverty level for a family of four.
In Rhode Island working families are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet. In 2005, the average cost of a two bedroom apartment in RI was $1,147 a month. A family of three earning $16,600 (the federal poverty level) needed over 82% of their monthly income to pay the rent. When you add the recent increases in food, clothing, healthcare, utilities and gasoline, working families are losing ground.
Waging A Living, PBS Special  To highlight the problems of the working poor, PBS' award-winning independent non-fiction film series POV is presenting Roger Weisberg's "Waging a Living." The film chronicles the day-to-day battles of four low-wage earners fighting to lift their families out of poverty. Shot over a three-year period in the Northeast and California, this observational documentary captures the dreams, frustrations, and accomplishments of a diverse group of people who struggle to live from paycheck to paycheck. To learn more about "Waging a Living" click here to visit the POV Waging a Living website. Locally,Waging a Living will be shown on RI PBS Channel 36 (Cox Cable channel 8) on Thursday, September 7th at 9:30PM. On the same evening at 8:30PM RI PBS will broadcast a Town Hall forum called Building Strong Families. The topic is predatory lending.
Community Action Agencies - RI's Safety Net
 For over forty years CCAP and RI's network of Community Action Agencies have been the safety net for economically disadvantaged and working poor families. RI’s Community Action Agencies work together in a unified manner to strengthen families, improve their communities, open doors to self-sufficiency, and better the conditions under which people live, earn and work.
To learn more about poverty in RI and the impact it has on people's lives contact CCAP or click here to visit the RI Poverty Institute's web site. |
