ECS Thoughts Every year about this time there will be a day when the weather will turn cool, the heat will lift and you know it won’t be back soon. If you are in the country the rivers will be gathered in morning fog, Canadian geese will start to gather and in the sky there will be long V’s as flocks start the journey south. In the suburbs, school has started and parents and children settle into a rhythm of school work, activities, and a march toward opportunity. However, in Philadelphia and other urban areas it is sometimes different. While school has started, and you see kids walking to school, it’s what you don’t see that is different. Many children will be in understaffed schools, some will be hungry when they come to school, some will not have warm coats, and some may not have homes and will be living with grandparents, foster parents or shelters. Basic home life let alone homework will be impossible as home may not be safe because of the issues of addiction, poverty, or abuse. No parent may be available to provide a safe environment or provide much needed oversight. Here as a child, the march towards opportunity is much harder, if not impossible. Here in Philadelphia 28 percent of our population lives in poverty and the group impacted the hardest is the children. We know that the real way out of poverty lies in the opportunity to secure meaningful employment, and meaningful employment requires training and solid, fundamental education. Without education and meaningful employment, without mentoring and direction the cycle of poverty is impossible to break. The cost is unacceptable, not just the economic cost, but the human cost. A cost we all pay. We talk about America as a land of opportunity. Here in our region the march towards opportunity is not an even one, nor should it be in a free society where it is an individual’s road and responsibility to travel. However in a moral society, our work at ECS and all social service agencies is to work to provide the tools, the opportunity, and the mentoring to those who would otherwise never have a chance to get on the journey. We look to lift people up and provide the opportunity we all want and only some of us have. Social justice is not a safety net; it is the chance to improve and in a just society; to give.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 23:37:34 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015