Poverty Institute

July 20th - 21st, 2010
Doubletree Hotel Lloyd Center
1000 NE Multnomah Street
Portland, OR 97232

Times for both days:
8:00-8:45am - Breakfast/Registration
9:00am - Conference begins
4:00pm - Conference ends

Additional lodging available at nearby hotels, including the Residence Inn, Marriott Courtyard, and Red Lion.

Earn 1 college credit or 11 clock hours from Portland State University.

Price: (does not include food and lodging)
• $349.00 non-credit
• $395.00 for 1 credit or 11 clock hours
• $249.00 Student rate
• $299.00 Student rate with college credit

This interactive two-day session provides helping professionals and community members with a deeper understanding of poverty and offers concrete tools for breaking poverty barriers. Through sharing her journey from generational migrant labor poverty to achieving a Doctorate, research findings from the perspectives of people living in poverty, and 18 years of working with professionals and communities across the nation, Dr. Donna M. Beegle frames the discussion of how to provide authentic opportunities for people to move out and stay out of poverty. Participants become skilled in communicating and working more effectively with people who live in the crisis of poverty.

Conference Agenda

Day One

Learning Objectives

• Discuss the impact of poverty on self-confidence, motivation, and expectations
• Understand how poverty in the U.S. is internalized as a personal deficiency
• Describe social class differences in priorities, language and relationships
• Understand how to develop a welcoming climate and develop meaningful relationships
• Explain the difference between immigrant poverty and poverty in the U.S.
• Discuss the confounding of race and poverty issues to better assist people in moving forward
• Explain the barriers perceived by people in poverty when dealing with those not in poverty
• Understand how to implement changes in communication, teaching and learning styles to enhance connections and success
• Discuss ways to motivate and provide meaningful incentives to people fighting poverty
• Demonstrate ability to build a “full resource backpack” for assisting people to move out and stay out of poverty

Day Two

Overview

Day two of the Poverty Institute provides participants with strategies for communicating and relating more effectively with people living in poverty. The concepts of oral and print culture communication and relationship styles are offered as tools to enhance skills necessary for educating and communicating effectively across poverty barriers. Most of our systems are set up to support people coming from a literate, print culture orientation and they are often alienating to people who have a more word of mouth style of communicating and relating. How we get our information shapes how we relate to one another and how we experience the world. Many people from poverty backgrounds get their information verbally... creating an oral culture thought process and an oral culture style of communicating and relating. Most people from literate middle and upper class backgrounds gain their information from reading ... creating a print culture thought process and a print culture style of relating. Participants will role play and practice different communication and relationship styles to improve connections for breaking poverty barriers.

Learning Objectives

• Obtain techniques for understanding and valuing oral and print culture communication styles
• Understand how to focus and build on the assets of oral culture students and families instead of only seeing problems
• Understand how to include oral culture learning styles in programs, policy, and curriculum
• Explain how to overcome misunderstanding that can arise when diverse communication and learning styles are present
• Discuss why oral culture orientation is a main determinant of poverty
• Describe how to assist people in gaining print culture skills necessary to be successful in education and the workplace.
• Evaluate programs, curriculum, and school climate for inclusiveness of oral culture communicators