A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity

This chapter presents some ways of working with teens to reduce the problems caused by poverty. One is helping to reduce teen pregnancy. The authors describe the Carrera program in Oklahoma that educates middle schoolers about sex and informs them about consequences and contraceptives. One study showed that publicly funded contraception reduces the rate of pregnancy by 73 percent—leading to a huge savings when compared with the public cost involved with unwanted pregnancies. The Carrera program provides comprehensive assistance by not just focusing on sex education but also giving adolescents medical, dental, and vision care as well as financial counseling. It’s about giving them hope for a better future.

The authors argue that in many poor school districts that have dangerous neighborhoods, schools need to stay open extended hours. Right now, kids get out in mid-afternoon, often with no adult supervision. To keep them out of trouble, a program called Citizen Schools gives students a three-hour afternoon “apprenticeship” in which they learn about careers and get extra tutoring. Another program called Youth Villages works a bit like the Nurse-Family Partnership, offering in-home counseling to youth and their parents. Finally, the College Advising Corps dispenses advice about applying for college, something many students from disadvantaged backgrounds have little knowledge about and cannot get from their families.

Skeptics of aid programs often say that money is wasted because it fosters dependence and the poor often make bad choices. The authors admit that all of us make bad choices at times, and the answer is more complicated than applying a simple good/bad rubric. One aspect that research points to is the role of hope—or lack of it. A study in which dogs were given shocks when restrained showed that even when the restraints were removed, if a signal given that the shock would occur the dogs didn’t try to run. They whimpered and remained still. A control group of dogs who had not been restrained ran away upon the application of shocks. Researchers think something similar happens with humans mired in poverty: they become acculturated to not expecting success and give up. As the authors note, “Poverty is often accompanied by clinical depression” (120).

A program called Compassion International sponsors children in various countries. It gives them extra tutoring and counseling but also focuses on imbuing them with “hope, self-confidence, and spiritual growth” (125). A study of both kids who are sponsored and those who are not showed that the former had better educational outcomes; beyond that, they exhibited more self-confidence and higher expectations for themselves. Greater hope may also reduce birth rates in very poor areas: when people are mired in desperate circumstances, they tend to have more children with the expectation that some of them will die.

One of the people introduced in Chapter 1 was Dr. Gary Slutkin, an infectious disease specialist who worked overseas in refugee camps for many years treating things like tuberculosis and cholera. When he returned to the US to work in Chicago, he noted many similarities between infectious diseases and urban violence. Mainly, people exposed to violence have, in effect, compromised immune systems and are thus more likely to engage in violence themselves. The way to stop this is to halt the spread of new “infections”—i.e., new cases of violence.

To this end, Dr. Slutkin created a program called Cure Violence, enlisting the help of “violence disrupters:” outreach workers who had standing in their communities. Many of these were former gang members and ex-convicts themselves. These workers “trade intelligence among themselves on recent threats, clashes, murders, and possible retaliations. When someone is shot, they go to the hospital room to commiserate with the victim—and counsel against a retaliatory hit” (148). They also organize vigils to mark the incident in the community and try to instill a sense of shame among the perpetrators.

Evaluations of Cure Violence point to its effectiveness. A report sponsored by the Justice Department found that the organization “reduced shootings by 16 to 28 percent” in the areas in which it operated (148). It’s a cost-effective way of dealing with violence, yet it lacks the funding to be established in all the cities where it’s needed. The authors argue that such preventive measures are better—and cheaper—than anything applied after the fact.

Sex trafficking is a huge problem worldwide, with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam among the countries with the highest numbers of trafficked girls forced into prostitution. It would be a mistake to think it doesn’t happen in the United States or that it only entails foreign women brought into the country. American citizens are also involved, and Chapter 10 looks at programs intended to help them.

One such program is Magdalene, founded by Reverend Becca Stevens in Nashville. Stevens herself is a survivor of sexual abuse, and she wanted to help others in similar circumstances. Magdalene lets former prostitutes stay at a residential facility for up to two years to get counseling, substance abuse treatment, and job training. The last is important, according to Stevens, to provide comprehensive assistance. To help in this area, she started Thistle Farms, which runs a café where some of the women work and train as baristas. It also includes an online business through which the women sell items such as soap and candles that they make themselves. Overall, 72 percent of the women who start the program complete it—a high success rate. Magdalene now has six houses and demand far outpaces supply. Stevens argues it’s both cheaper and more effective than simply housing prostitutes in prison.

As with most things, there are no easy answers when it comes to combating forced prostitution. Many people advocate legalizing and regulating prostitution. While that solves some issues, the authors argue that it creates others: an underground market often springs up alongside the legal one, dealing in underage and trafficked girls. One successful approach in Sweden is to shift the legal focus to customers. Instead of arresting the sex workers, those buying sex are arrested and slapped with a fine. The workers themselves are provided with support services.