I am continuing to share the stories and reflections of the young adults who live in our intentional Christian community program, Dwell. If you are interested in learning more about Dwell, please check out the information on our website.
Also, if you are interested in supporting our Dwell program financially, you can make a donation on our website. Please make sure to indicate that your donation is for the DOOR Atlanta/Dwell program when you donate.
In the last post we met Steve Andrews, one of our Capitol View house members. Steve and his wife Kari both live in our Dwell house. They are newlyweds who got married at the end of August and are living their first year of marriage in intentional Christian community. I asked Kari, who grew up in rural upstate New York, how her experience of rural poverty differs from the urban poverty that she is experiencing while in our Dwell program. Here are her reflections. ~ Jannan Thomas
“Poverty looks very different in rural areas versus urban areas. There are not trailers in the city. The racial diversity is very different. Poverty is more concentrated here. Being able to see trees and large amounts of green grass represents wealth in the city. In the country, there is green space all around, no matter your wealth. This lack of green space makes Capitol View’s local park, Perkerson Park, an oasis in the midst of the desert. Even going for a walk is different in my urban neighborhood. I worry I may get accosted by people here; at home I didn’t have those concerns. Another difference is the role of race in poverty. In upstate New York I don’t represent wealth because of the color of my skin, but here I do. Here, the color of my skin represents so much that I don’t even understand. I don’t understand the social scripts of my new neighborhood yet. I know that my presence at the GED tutoring program can make the participants uncomfortable. There are several people at GED that will never ask me for help. They seem to be afraid of me, but I don’t know why. It has been surprising to me to know that I represent something but I don’t know what it is.
I am also learning how hard it is to actually leave the streets. I want folks in the neighborhood to come to the GED tutoring program, be able to earn their GED and get out of the neighborhood. But I recognize there is an irony in that desire because I have decided to move into the neighborhood. But I think my desire is that they escape a place that has been a trap for them. The trap is not the neighborhood, but the trap is knowledge. For example, not knowing the proper clothes to wear for an interview or having no idea how important it is to get a high school education to do anything. Growing up in upstate New York, I knew there were other options such as culture, literature and history. But the students in the GED program don’t have any perspective on the variety in the world. They are not shown it. Their lack of education prevents them from experiencing the world in a way that is idealistic. Some of the students are so pushed down, that they don’t know anything but crime.
I recognize that my reflections draw broader strokes than are there really. I understand that it is complicated. But I am starting to understand that there is a system that oppresses people and I am starting to understand that that system limits some peoples understanding of their options. I think that the limiting of choices and models gives people less opportunity to be fully human. It is important to know what we are capable of, no matter our socio economic level.”
~Kari, Capitol View Dwell House community member
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