Synergy 2012 focuses on poverty in Grant County

Experts say there are several different ways to define poverty, and some might not even involve money.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2010 poverty rate in Grant County was 19.8 percent, giving it the sixth highest rate in the state.

Jerry Conover, director of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, said that was just one of many different poverty estimates.

“Any definition and formula is fairly arbitrary,” he said. “There’s no single solution that covers all the bases well.”

The American Community Survey five-year estimate found 17 percent of Grant County’s population had an income below the poverty level sometime in the last year.

For families, the rates increase — though 12 percent of all families lived in poverty last year, 30 percent of households with single mothers were below the poverty line.

Conover said certain factors can skew poverty estimates. Indiana counties with large universities tend to have higher poverty rates because students might make less than the threshold for poverty but still receive other types of assistance.

For example, Monroe, Delaware and Tippecanoe counties, which house Indiana University, Ball State University and Purdue University, respectively, have the top three highest poverty rates in the state.

With Indiana Wesleyan University and Taylor University, Grant County could be in a similar circumstance.

“Most students making less than $10,000 may be in poverty,” Conover said. “It’s kind of one-shot, one-size fits all (method) that doesn’t fit all situations very well.”

Most estimates show economically that about one in five Grant County residents lives around the poverty line. However, the experience of poverty can be vastly different between various groups of people.

Connie Rose, director of the Family Service Society, said the experience of poverty can mean different things.

“The definition of poverty is not about financial economics, it’s about deficiencies,” she said. “Poverty is about being without the things you need to have a successful life. In our case, poverty might be lack of sense of community.”

David Mills, lead minister at First Christian Church, 1970 N. Wabash Road, said people in Marion and Grant County might seem fairly homogenous, but are actually fragmented in various ways.

As director of the Brenden Group, a consulting firm that enlists demographic data to help churches minister to different communities, he commissioned an analysis of Grant County data.

It found that the largest single population group in Grant County represents no more than 15 percent of the entire county. There are also stark differences between people who live in the city and the county.

“We see a real sharp distinction between people who weathered the transition from an industrial based economy to service-oriented economy,” he said.

Mills said all the differences between people can not only shape their experience with poverty, but also how to tackle the issue.

“You really have a number of very similar and yet different realities that exist side-by-side in this community,” he said. “Every one of these subgroups agrees there’s a problem but has difficultly in finding a common language.”

Luke Owsley, community and project manager for the city, who is helping coordinate Synergy events, said the purpose of the forum was to help define the issue and start discussions on how to tackle it.

“This isn’t an event about how to fix everything,” he said. “It’s a springboard of gathering together leaders and people in the community that are interested in being involved.”

The first Synergy event in 2004 focused on economic development and the next in 2008 concentrated on education and leadership.

This year the theme is “People are GOLD,” which is an acronym for “giving opportunities, living dreams.”

Rose said the event will be split into two days — Friday and Saturday, Aug. 3-4. She said a forum Friday morning at the STAR Financial YMCA will include a presentation from a Muncie-based group that has designed a program to give forum participants perspective on the mindset of poverty.

Presentations later in the afternoon will include speakers who have found successful approaches in their communities, discussions about solutions and problem solving in Grant County and a roundup of successful local organizations.

Rose said the forum will seek to identify ways to shift the mindset on poverty “from enabling to empowering.” The event has borrowed many of its themes from the Olympics, such as its logo showing the interconnected pieces of business, education, health, faith and government.

“They all have to be in sync in order for us to be as strong as we can possibly be,” Rose said.