Reframing Poverty: Building Collaboration Across Different Perspectives

Why does poverty exist? What should we do about it? People answer these questions in very different ways. For example, is poverty a question of personal responsibility, or is it a systemic injustice? The conflict among these and other mainstream perspectives on poverty often impede meaningful political and social action to address the issue.

But these competing answers do not exist in a vacuum. We each choose a perspective on poverty that makes sense to us given our own life experiences. By understanding why a person might choose each of the different views that show up in the poverty discourse, we can work more effectively with partners in our communities, even if they approach the issue very differently. And by seeing whatever kernels of truth there are in the perspectives we typically reject, we can make our own efforts to reduce poverty more robust and more effective.

Eric Meade's award-winning book, Reframing Poverty: New Thinking and Feeling About Humanity's Greatest Challenge, shifts the conversation about poverty by highlighting the emotional and often unconscious mindsets we all bring to the issue. He offers a framework that allows virtually all of the mainstream views on poverty to be true at the same time.

In this two-hour online workshop with Eric, you will interact with colleagues in the Human Services Network to generate insights for your own life and work. Equipped with these insights, you will be able to strengthen your own approach to poverty while at the same time collaborating more effectively across the fault lines that hinder effective action in so many of our communities today.

Learning Objectives

• Through this workshop, participants will:
• Deepen your own connection to the issue of poverty,
• Identify opportunities to improve the anti-poverty work you do, and
• Develop new tools for building collaborative relationships with community partners who see the issue differently.

Presenter

Eric Meade is a nationally recognized futurist, facilitator, and consultant serving foundations, nonprofits, and governments. His clients have included the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Oxfam America, the VA Office of Rural Health, the Colorado Community Health Network, the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, and many more. He is the principal at the Whole Mind Strategy Group and the award-winning author of Reframing Poverty: New Thinking and Feeling About Humanity’s Greatest Challenge and Whole Mind Facilitation: How to Lead Workshops That Change People, Organizations, and the World. He also teaches in American University's School of International Service. Visit him at www.ericmeade.com.