Climbing Out Of Poverty, $2 At A Time

Last week, on my way to the train station in the morning, I decided to change up my route. Normally I cut through an alleyway that gets me to the station about 10 seconds faster, but Wednesday morning I decided to walk through downtown Glencoe for a change of scenery. On my way I passed three of Glencoe's banks (no, I couldn't tell you why Glencoe needs 3 banks on the same street), the Parkway Drugstore, a fancy and expensive shoe store, and Starbucks. What struck me most about my path that morning was what I saw outside of Starbucks at 7:30 AM:


A man in disheveled clothes selling StreetWise, a magazine that homeless Chicagoans can sell. 


The juxtaposition was almost too perfect. Young women in their lululemon work-out outfits talking on their iphones and men with briefcases sipping their hot coffee contrasted bleakly with this poor vendor. He quietly sat on a bench outside Starbucks, respectfully asking people who passed by if they would like to purchase this $2 periodical.


As I passed, he did the same for me. I quickly pulled out the money from my bag and in return he handed me a StreetWise and thanked me profusely. 


On the train to school, I scanned the magazine, but I couldn't stop thinking about the man I bought the magazine from. I felt good for having bought a magazine, but at the same time I felt guilty. How could my $2 help him at all? The people in Starbucks were spending double on coffee alone. Why was he selling the magazine, and did he believe this was the way to getting out of poverty?


When I returned home that afternoon, I did some research on StreetWise. They base their system off of three goals:

 1. Employment: Provide immediate access to a legitimate earned income for any person willing to work; and provide the training and support necessary to help our clients secure stable long-term employment.

2. Housing: Assure that each client is safely and stably housed; and work to move those clients living on the street or in a homeless shelter into non-shelter based housing as quickly as possible.
3. Financial Literacy: Provide each client with the education and support needed to successfully manage their income and expenses so they can achieve personal/financial stability.

Reading about the program helped soothe my original anxiety about it. The main mission of StreetWise is not to bring people from the lower to higher class. They understand that it is a long, difficult process. What StreetWise does is helps get impoverished Americans back on their feet and feel what it's like to have a real job and a real income. It's helping to decrease the number of Chicagoans in poverty, one step at a time.

Still, I wonder, what happens next? How does one move forward from selling magazines? In these real life situations, is it possible to move social classes?