VALUES:

Abundance Thinking and Partnership in Diversity organize the interests, energies and intentions of diverse populations toward social change. Conviviality as social change not only serves the highest aspirations of the human family but is a global imperative for its well-being .

A Liberation Psychology makes a preferential option for the poor, but at the same time does not neglect the privileged who share the same social influences

MISSION:

To address the deleterious effects of poverty on the mental-health of children and youth by serving as a pathfinding resource, through consultation and training, in envisioning Conviviality as Social Change.

A. Social Considerations

A consequence of the inequitable Social System, that we experience both nationally and globally, is division between the “entitled” (the “haves”) and the “disenfranchised” (the “have nots”). This experience is reinforced by culturally conditioned labels and stories.

B. The Growth of Poverty

According to a recent analysis of the 2005 Census, 16 million Americans are living in extreme poverty (defined as a single wage-earner earning $5000 a year or less.) This is 26% growth of the severely poor from 2000 to 2005. California has the highest number of people in extreme poverty (1.9 million). Most live in the Central Valley, where the depth of poverty is comparable to Appalachia. African Americans are 3x as likely to live in deep poverty than Whites; Hispanics are 2x as likely.

Global Poverty continues to plague a significant number of people around the world. Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people—live in extreme poverty, defined in global terms as living on less than $1 a day.

C. The Corrosive Effect of Poverty on the Mental Health

Poverty bankrupts the environment and inhibits the kind of healthy social and emotional development of children that fosters resiliency.

Poverty limits resources so that those with severe psychiatric illness cannot get the help they need.1 Untreated depression can make a poor person destitute.

Poverty engenders a social environment characterized by hopelessness and disenfranchisement, leading to substance abuse and violence. This occasions a deterioration of communities, neighborhoods, and, ultimately, families.

Poverty deepens the chasm between social classes, with economic divisions often following racial lines, thereby reinforcing envy, conflict, and discrimination.

D. Intervention

People dedicated to improving the mental-health condition of children and youth must take into account the associated social issues. (See Intervention Page in this Section.) They are additionally called to address social change in a way that alleviates the divisions that fragment society.