The first class day of my Leadership Washington County program was Oct. 12th and since the Western MD Regional Library is sponsoring me to participate in this program I thought it was only right to post a learning reflection here.
The theme of the day was Human Resources and the thesis statement we were given to keep in the back of our minds throughout the day was something to the extent of, "How do poverty and privilege co-exist in Washington county?" To drive the point home, we were asked to read the article, "The Limits of Charity."
Part 1: Poverty Simulation
So, the first half of our day began with a poverty simulation. We were broken up into 5 groups of 6 people and each group was given a different scenario. The scenario my group had was written entirely in Spanish. Basically, our situation was this:
We are a family of four - 2 parents, 2 kids (ages 3 and 4) who mostly only speak Spanish though they know a little English. The parents are in the country illegally but the children were born in the U.S. and thus are legal. The family is currently living with some friends but they need to get food stamps, medical assistance, education information for their kids, etc. We have an appointment at La Comunidad Latina which is based out of the Community Action Council building on Summit Ave, to speak with Gladys Rojas.
So, we set out on foot to La Comunidad Latina where we waited in line just to sign in with the receptionist. Keeping the idea of poverty and privilege it was interesting to hear some of our LWC companions wanting to skip ahead to the front of the line just because of the LWC program. We reminded them that this is a poverty simulation and the wait is what folks do to be seen at the CAC every day. When we got into Ms. Rojas' office she immediately started speaking Spanish, greeting us, etc. There were two of us in the group who had enough Spanish experience to piece together what was happening so, that made it a little bit easier but pretty much she was trying to demonstrate for us what it's like for someone who doesn't speak the primary language. Ms. Rojas continued to guide us, in Spanish, through the intake form that we had to complete. Afterwards, she reverted to English...thankfully! We spent about 30 minutes talking with Ms. Rojas and we learned that since the parents are illegal, there's really no resources available to help them. However, since their children were born in the U.S. they are entitled to food stamps. temporary cash assistance, education at the public schools, and medical insurance. However, she cannot provide us with any of those resources there, we have to go to the Department of Social Services (DSS) for that. What she can do for us is to help us set up and maintain our own business - should we be so inclined to register one in the future.
So, we set out again, this time to DSS. When we arrived at DSS we were yet again greeted with another line. This time the LWC name (and the need for DSS to stay on their schedule) did expedite our wait (hello, privilege) and we were shown into the room where we needed to be. Did I mention that if your request is processed before 2PM it might be possible for your to receive same-day assistance? So, time is of the essence.
We shared our situation with the two DSS representatives who were waiting for us and they told us about the process we'd go through rather than actually making us go through it. They do group consultations at DSS three times a day and each group session can accommodate about 20 people. During these sessions, everyone watches an intro video which explains, in English, what services are available through DSS. After that, they're guided through the necessary paperwork (approx. 8-10 pages worth). To accommodate non-English speaking clients, they have a telephone translating system where the DSS rep is on one phone, the client is on the other and in the middle (somewhere off site) is a translator. So, each party takes turns speaking into the phone while the middle man translates for them. They can currently translate approximately 26 languages.
Basically, the only requirement for someone to receive assistance at DSS is a social security number. This means the parents in our scenario are still not able to receive any assistance for themselves but they can receive approximately $363 a month in food stamps with which to feed their two U.S. born children. They can also receive a maximum of approximately $453 a month in temporary cash assistance - again to be used to take care of the children (clothes, shoes, toiletries, shelter, etc). The children also will be taken care of medically with medical insurance. If I understand it right, they'll immediately be covered by Medicaid and then once the paperwork goes through the system, they'll be assigned to an MCO (?) through which all their medical needs will be processed. DSS does random spot checks each month and does check in with all clients 2x a year; at least one of those meetings is either in person or on the phone. Approximately 30% of Washington County residents is on one form of assistance or another (either food stamps. temporary cash assistance, medical assistance, or a combination of the three).
Just vising these two departments took about 3 hours and they were abbreviated visits. Imagine if we really had this need and had to invest even more time in our day to get the help we needed. Plus, we might end the day with no cash in our pockets anyway - it usually takes 5-7 days for folks to receive their temporary cash assistance card in the mail (it comes from TX). If we had needed food to hold us over we would have been sent back to the Community Action Council or a soup kitchen, etc.
Another thing that I learned that I thought was important to share is that both La Comunidad Latina and the DSS are safe spaces; if you're illegal - for any reason (immigration, felonies, etc) they will not report you. They're in the business of getting help for their clients, not making their lives harder by calling the police. What a wonderful feeling and I bet most folks do not realize that these safe spaces exist...
A couple more thoughts on poverty and privilege: are the impoverished considered privileged to have these services available to them in Washington County considering these services aren't necessarily available everywhere? One of my favorite questions for almost any topic, can privilege exist without poverty or vice versa?
Stay tuned for part 2 of day #1 - a visit to the MCI-H prison in Sharpsburg.
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