Connecting

Helping People Out of Poverty

April is Community College Month. As our community’s college, our role is to educate highly skilled workers for positions in business and industry, promote economic diversity and prosperity in the communities we serve, and ensure students earn a high-quality credential that leads to a family-sustaining wage.

Earning a high-quality credential that leads to a family-sustaining wage is critical for economic mobility, especially for our distressed communities. Recently, Tri-County and the United Way of Anderson County met to discuss disamenity neighborhoods. A disamenity neighborhood is one that has all the following characteristics: low median home values; high percentage of residents below federal poverty threshold; low percentage of owner-occupied homes; low percentage of workers with a bachelor’s degree (or higher); low life expectancy; low median rent; high percentage of unemployed persons; and older median year homes were built. In short, living in a disamenity neighborhood accelerates a household’s journey to homelessness.

According to the United Way, there are close to 11,000 people who are currently living in a disamenity neighborhood in Anderson County. Of those, 20% are at risk of becoming homeless within the year.

We know that earning a college degree is the strongest predictor of whether a person is able to move up the economic ladder, and so we are partnering with the United Way of Anderson County to help those living in disamenity neighborhoods improve their economic mobility.

Tri-County Technical College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award associate degrees. Questions about the accreditation of Tri-County Technical College may be directed in writing to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033-4097, by calling (404) 679-4500, or by using information available on SACSCOC’s website (www.sacscoc.org).

Tri-County Technical College does not discriminate in admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, qualifying disability, veteran’s status, or national origin.

What does this partnership look like? First, we sought to understand the unique challenges these individuals face by engaging in a Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) during the College’s spring Professional Development Day. CAPS is an interactive immersion experience that sensitizes participants to the realities of poverty. As part of the simulation, faculty and staff were grouped into “families” and tasked with working together to navigate challenges like getting to a job when the family’s only vehicle doesn’t work, finding affordable childcare when schools are closed, and choosing between paying for groceries and medications.

Next, we plan to attend the United Way’s Homeless and Housing Summit in May to discuss how TCTC can partner with area organizations to help those living in disamenity neighborhoods access educational opportunities that can improve their economic mobility. This could be industry-recognized training and certificate programs or associate degree programs. Whatever the individual chooses, we have financial aid packages that can account for nearly the full cost to attend college, and we offer the types of support services these individuals need to balance school with work and family life.

I look forward to sharing more in a future newsletter about how we’re working with the United Way and others to help people out of poverty and improve their economic mobility.

In your service,

Galen DeHay, Ph.D. President