Poverty is a growing global concern, here’s a resource to help those experiencing it

• Aniya Faulcon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Brandon Thibodeaux for NPR

C'Artis Harris, walking with her children in 2017, was searching for housing that would accept her Section 8 voucher when NPR began following her in 2016. Today, Harris and her family still live in an area of high poverty.

Airdate: Tuesday, October 11, 2022

According to Census data, the official poverty rate in 2021 was over 11%, with almost 38 mil­lion people in poverty. Neither the rate nor the number in pov­erty was significantly different from 2020.

Recent data shows, almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.

Robin Rohrbaugh, president of the Community Progress Council joined us on Tuesday’s Smart Talk to discuss the poverty crises and resources to support families on their path toward self-sufficiency.

Rohrbaugh said people experiencing poverty face challenges with employment, income, housing, transportation, health insurance, education, childcare, and food and nutrition.

To combat these challenges the Community Progress Council offers a Self-Sufficiency program, which aims to empower and coach low-income families to attain a family sustaining wage in order to achieve and maintain economic self-sufficiency and live free of public assistance.

Rohrbaugh said, she doesn’t believe poverty is too large of an issue to try to eliminate.

“I believe as a society we have a moral obligation to look at how our government programs are organized and how we let people off of services before maybe they’re stable enough to be cut off,” Rohrbaugh said. “If we’re not addressing multiple issues, I believe that people will continue to fall backwards. And so it’s a complex problem to solve, but we put people on the moon, I think we could solve this problem.”

For more information about the Self-Sufficiency program visit yorkcpc.org/self-sufficiency-program.