042: The Interconnected Nature of Poverty (Slingshot Stories)

Today, Ed Gillentine and Jared Barnett discuss the interconnected nature of poverty, and consequently, how poverty fighting efforts can be interconnected as well.

Show Links

Ed Gillentine:
EdGillentine.com
Instagram: @journey.to.impact

Slingshot Memphis
www.slingshotmemphis.org
LinkedIn
Instagram: @slingshotmemphis
Email: disrupt@slingshotmemphis.org

Transcript

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:22:20
Ed Gillentine
Welcome to Slingshot Stories, a series produced in collaboration with Journey to Impact and Slingshot Memphis. I'm Ed Gillentine, and I'll be co-hosting today along with my partner In Impact, Jared Barnett, CEO of Slingshot. We've got another fantastic topic today, one that kind of gets me fired up, too. Jared The interconnected nature of poverty. So many people want to focus on maybe just one thing.

00:00:22:20 - 00:00:23:21
Ed Gillentine
I grew

00:00:23:21 - 00:00:26:16
Ed Gillentine
up in the Southern Baptist world, so pardon me, but the whole

00:00:26:19 - 00:00:39:03
Ed Gillentine
three points in a poem thing where it's just way over simplified. But when you when you think about how interconnected dealing with poverty is like. Like talk us through that. Give us some color on what you mean. Yeah.

00:00:39:03 - 00:01:00:22
Jared Barnett
So we've talked a lot in these podcast that right around how business principles can be applied to philanthropy and poverty fighting. This is an instance where I don't know if that always holds true in the same way when you think about the interconnected nature of poverty. And the reason is, in my consulting days, right, we could easily kind of go in and find two or three initiatives that would produce most of the value for whatever project, right?

00:01:00:22 - 00:01:08:21
Jared Barnett
Whether it was cutting costs or, you know, introducing a new product. You know, there is some very clear things that would move the needle. And quite honestly, we just didn't worry about the rest of it. Yeah.

00:01:08:21 - 00:01:12:12
Ed Gillentine
That whole hedgehog concept. Right. So it's good to great. Yeah. Yep.

00:01:13:00 - 00:01:38:23
Jared Barnett
And so when it comes to poverty fighting, though, my experience is that's not the case. Right? There are some things that are very valuable. Right? Like someone needs food right out of poverty. Right? Education is helpful. Having a job is helpful. But and isolation, even the value of that one thing is mitigated. If it's not taken in consideration to the comprehensive needs that a a person or family has.

00:01:38:23 - 00:02:00:08
Jared Barnett
Right. And so I think by taking a more family centric perspective or or person centric perspective. Right, and saying what is a human need, right. In order to be out of poverty, what are the different factors? How do those work together? It's just it it changes the mindset around how you think about it and it allows you to think about the broader needs of a person and not just getting locked in that this one thing is going to solve it.

00:02:00:08 - 00:02:10:22
Ed Gillentine
All right. Getting a job or getting a GED or whatever it is. And I think I want to come back to that family centric idea, because that was sort of transformative to me and how I think about it.

00:02:11:04 - 00:02:19:10
Ed Gillentine
But if poverty is interconnected, how how do you have strategies that address poverty that are interconnected? Yeah.

00:02:19:10 - 00:02:39:04
Jared Barnett
So there's a couple of different ways that you can think about this. So one is you can look at I call it the conglomerate approach, right? And say, hey, what are nonprofits that are doing multiple things for a person or family? A two generation model is a great example of this, right? An organization that supports a gap is a good example, one that we work with here in Memphis.

00:02:39:04 - 00:02:58:18
Jared Barnett
They work in an apartment complex. They provide support to the grandparents, the parents, the children, and work across that spectrum. And so that provides many things that that family needs beyond just any one thing. So that's one thing to do. But those organizations tend to be rare and they tend to be just as, you know, conglomerates in business can often get less efficient.

00:02:58:18 - 00:02:59:17
Jared Barnett
Hard to do. And right.

00:02:59:20 - 00:03:20:10
Jared Barnett
The same thing happens in the nonprofit sector. So what more often happens is you find, you know, a really good nonprofit is really good at something. And so as you think about different nonprofits, one thing I would encourage you to be thoughtful of is how is that nonprofit not just providing its service, but also thinking about how it's connecting its participants with other needs that they may have?

00:03:20:19 - 00:03:40:16
Jared Barnett
And this could be done via a pathway or via policy. We use the idea of pathway. This is around the idea of saying, okay, if I'm supporting someone in an after school program and that's what my nonprofit does, well, that student has other needs. And am I helping create a pathway that enables them to access those needs in a way that's efficient for them?

00:03:40:20 - 00:04:00:13
Jared Barnett
Because I already have a process set up. You know, I am whether I'm receiving people to provide services or I'm sending someone to new services, there's this smooth, streamlined process that makes it easy for that participant to receive that. So good examples of I'm an after school program, maybe I need to provide, you know, food security, right? Maybe that's a challenge for some of the students that I'm working with.

00:04:00:13 - 00:04:01:22
Ed Gillentine
Kind of hard to study when you're hungry.

00:04:01:22 - 00:04:17:09
Jared Barnett
Exactly. So can I connect that student with someone who provides food security? So I don't do it myself as a nonprofit, but I connect them. And so as you think about the nonprofits you work with, that's one thing to think about is how are they connecting their participants with other services that they need? The other one is around policy.

00:04:17:17 - 00:04:47:07
Jared Barnett
So when you're thinking about policy with afterschool programs, one thing you could think about is policy around an individual school or a school district, or it could be county or state education standards, things that could help that individual that you serve, that student. Right. Received greater benefits. So a good example that would come across is that there's a lot of research that shows exclusionary discipline practices lead to a lot of negative outcomes, and that would be something that removes the student from the school environment, such as a suspension or expulsion.

00:04:48:01 - 00:05:20:09
Jared Barnett
Well, there is other approaches to that to discipline that allow those students to stay in the school environment while they still receive the discipline for, you know, a poor decision they might have made. And just the outcomes in those environments are significantly better. And so as a after school program, if I'm supporting a student at a particular school and that school has exclusionary disciplinary practices, could I influence that school and help them understand the benefits of changing those practices, therefore, in a way that would benefit not just the one per student that I'm thinking about, but all of the students in that school.

00:05:20:19 - 00:05:30:07
Jared Barnett
Right. And then perhaps taking that to a district level so it benefits all of the students in that district. And so both of those things are really important as you think about this interconnected nature of poverty.

00:05:30:15 - 00:05:31:22
Ed Gillentine
I love how you said that.

00:05:31:22 - 00:05:33:02
Ed Gillentine
How does that relate to.

00:05:33:02 - 00:05:36:07
Ed Gillentine
Investors in impact in philanthropy?

00:05:37:03 - 00:06:01:16
Jared Barnett
Yeah. So I think as investors, it's important to be, again, mindful that it's okay to be passionate about something and really, you know, want to put your philanthropic support, whether that's your time, money or other resources into it. But if you want to see the change and poverty and improvements and you know that a person or a family's life, you need to make sure that you don't lose sight of the bigger picture and the more comprehensive needs of that family has.

00:06:01:16 - 00:06:19:15
Jared Barnett
And so can you support nonprofits that are thoughtful of that as well, and making sure that if there's three nonprofits in there equally effective at what they do. But one of those nonprofits has a lot of different pathways to other services that a family might need. Well, that family's going to be dramatically better off as a result of that.

00:06:19:22 - 00:06:26:16
Jared Barnett
So those philanthropic funds that you might invest will produce a much greater return and a much, much greater benefits because of what's being enabled there.

00:06:27:00 - 00:06:42:06
Ed Gillentine
I think that's fascinating. I think of the idea of reinventing the wheel, which is something I hate to do because almost everybody in the world is smarter than me. Almost everyone in the world has created something that works better. So why am I spinning my wheels? No pun intended. Why can't I go find something and make it work for me?

00:06:42:06 - 00:06:47:01
Ed Gillentine
And I think the same is true in the nonprofit philanthropic impact space.

00:06:47:07 - 00:07:08:14
Ed Gillentine
And and there's a sense of culture and in impact organizations, too. And the idea of humility, like, I'm willing to work with you because you're better at what you're doing. I get to stay in the I guess we'll go back to Joan Collins hedgehog idea. Right? I'm going to stay in my hedgehog. What I'm really good at writing allows me to get extremely good with it.

00:07:08:14 - 00:07:30:20
Ed Gillentine
But I'm not afraid to partner with you and say, Jared, you're really, really good at what you do. I'm not even going to try to do that. I want to encourage you. I met with the my city rides people yesterday and and I'd also been thinking about the inner city Memphis inner city rugby. So tell me if this is a bad analogy, but in my mind I think it fits.

00:07:31:03 - 00:07:57:14
Ed Gillentine
So if you think Memphis inner city rugby, first of all, you're like, what? Memphis rugby? But number two, you think that's about sports, right? But if you talk to them, it's not really about sports, it's about community, and it's about a pathway to education, staying in college, finishing and all that sort of thing. But then you think about, wait a minute, kids in underserved areas, how are they going to get a ride to school?

00:07:57:14 - 00:08:21:01
Ed Gillentine
I think in a part to, oh, let's enter my city. Right, right. So you get this really inexpensive, consistent ride. But then when I was talking to those guys the other day, they told me they have realized over the last two or three years, yeah, they're in the ride business, but maybe more importantly, they're in the credit building business because that's one of the biggest problems that people in poverty have, is getting a credit history.

00:08:21:06 - 00:08:37:10
Ed Gillentine
Then you enter Advance Memphis that does a lot of job skills training. And I think I told you before, but one of my favorite jobs ever was driving a forklift in a lumber yard. Right. And so the advance Memphis people can teach me in my part time job how to drive a forklift, which might be because I got my scooter.

00:08:37:10 - 00:08:46:22
Ed Gillentine
Now I can go work at FedEx and a little bit higher paying job, right. My part time job get me through school all interconnected is that does that is that a reasonable analogy?

00:08:46:22 - 00:09:02:16
Jared Barnett
It is. I think it is. And so I think as an investor, editor, philanthropist, there's a couple ways you can think about that. Right. So, one, how do you work with an after school program that has some of these connections? Right. So, okay, great. You know, I provide the academic support for the student. They then go play rugby with Memphis inner city rugby.

00:09:03:00 - 00:09:23:11
Jared Barnett
Memphis inner city rugby helps them get into college with, you know, financial aid and scholarships and often playing in rugby programs. Now they're at their my city rides that helps them get to and from college and let's be honest, if you don't have your own transportation, having a reasonably paying job while you're in college is almost impossible because you have no way to get there.

00:09:24:03 - 00:09:49:19
Jared Barnett
And so having that is helpful. So that not only enables you to get to college and, you know, to pursue your education, it also enables you to have an income while you're in college. And then one of the other things we've learned about, for instance, with transportation is there's health benefits that come with that as well. And so when the research shows that when a person has access to their own transportation, they're much more likely to one, be proactive in their health care and seek out, you know, services before it becomes an emergency.

00:09:49:19 - 00:10:08:01
Jared Barnett
And they have to go to the E.R. and too, they're much more likely to keep and maintain appointments and just an ongoing care for themselves. And so you see a lot of health benefits that comes from transportation that you may not even think about when you're thinking about a scooter. Right. Just like, yeah, credit history. Right. Like when you're experiencing poverty, you don't have discretionary income.

00:10:08:01 - 00:10:23:14
Jared Barnett
Right. To go and invest and do things right. You're buying something too often for cash or on a credit card, which, heaven forbid is a, you know, can create all sorts of issues. Yeah. And so by having a way to kind of build your credit, you know, main ways of doing that, right, are through transportation of cars and vehicles.

00:10:23:14 - 00:10:51:14
Jared Barnett
Right. And houses. Well, if you're in poverty, you're not buying a house anytime soon. But the scooter, the Myciti rides, provides an economical way to build credit history. So again. Right, you're building. Yeah. You know, these multiplying benefits on top of each other. And so as a philanthropist, again, you want to be thoughtful around how is the organizations that you support engaging in, you know, these pathways is to help the other participants receive other benefits and being thoughtful on taking a family or person centric approach in your philanthropy.

00:10:51:14 - 00:11:08:10
Jared Barnett
Right. So if we take this situation here, maybe you're supporting that academic, you know, support after school program. Well, maybe you could. But if you know that that student is also participating, Memphis Inner City Rugby, yeah, maybe you can support that as well. Or maybe you try and support my city rides and connect them with the students that are there.

00:11:08:10 - 00:11:18:17
Jared Barnett
So when they graduate, they have transportation. And so it's this idea of thinking about it from a more of a network mindset and a comprehensive mindset than just this one thing is going to solve everything for that individual.

00:11:19:02 - 00:11:49:05
Ed Gillentine
I love how you said it. We got to land a plane just to kind of wrap it up. I think of life as a fully formed saying, right, and it's connected and nuanced. And this interconnected nature in the battle against poverty is really important. So I think you and I would say to our listeners two things. If we could consolidate it all, number one, make sure you're asking the organizations that you're working with these questions about how they're interconnected and how they are working with these interconnected puzzle pieces.

00:11:49:11 - 00:11:50:17
Ed Gillentine
But also, number two.

00:11:51:00 - 00:12:03:19
Ed Gillentine
You need to be doing the work to understand how it works in your area of passion, because it's going to be a lifelong learning process, fantastic communication there. Fantastic topic. I love it.