Local poverty: It’s been too long and for too many 

The sign outside of Grace Lutheran Church in Upland reminded passersby of a sad truth: One in four kids in San Bernardino County lives in poverty.

As a community, we’re all stakeholders in fixing that. It won’t happen overnight. In the 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, the problem has actually grown.

Today, 3.2 million people live below the poverty line in Southern California – nearly double the number from 1990. In San Bernardino County, 20.4 percent of the overall population – and 28.3 percent of all children – live in poverty.

Recently, I had the honor of joining other stakeholders from the Inland Empire to talk about how we can work together to raise awareness of the problem and begin to move the needle toward a solution.

The recent Give Big San Bernardino County campaign was an example of how, collectively, we can make a difference. The one-day web-a-thon raised nearly $550,000 – well above the $300,000 goal. More important, it highlighted the great work our not-for-profit organizations do.

These groups work tirelessly to better our communities – sometimes with a helping hand to a person or family in need, but more often by providing those same people with the tools they need to transform their lives.

That’s important to remember as we take the next steps in the war on poverty. It’s not about handouts, but about hand-ups – creating opportunities for people to move from dependency to self-sufficiency.

On Aug. 20, the Southern California Association of Governments will host a summit in Los Angeles on the poverty crisis, 50 years later, and a primary focus will be ways that business, education and government can work together to connect job training with job creation.

If we can make that happen, we won’t just move the needle; we’ll have our foot squarely on the gas pedal.

For the one in four children in our communities currently living in poverty, nothing less is acceptable.