LYNCHBURG, VA – The City of Lynchburg is meeting with organizations to begin its effort to get more people out of poverty. The City hopes to get 50 families above the poverty level by the end of the year, and is dedicating part of its budget to do it.
According to Assistant City Manager John Hughes, Lynchburg has the worst poverty issue in the state aside from Richmond. With about a quarter of people living there in poverty, Hughes met with people in the community Tuesday evening at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church to find a solution to the problem, one family at a time.
Hughes addressed dozen, explaining the gravity of the problem.
"Right now we have an over 20 percent poverty rate, and so that's significant," said Hughes
Through a tax hike on real estate, meals, and lodging, the City is raising money to support programs to help struggling families. Like $50 thousand that in part funds a program called "Get Ahead".
"The 50 thousand dollars, a large portion of that, if you take 10 or 12 or 15 individuals or households and put them through this 16 session curriculum, then it's going to cost additional funding, so we're also reaching out to the business community to ask them to help," said Hughes.
But Hughes says, the city government is looking for ways to get support from the state as well. At the city's libraries, grant funding will provide lunches to kids this summer.
"I attended a session on the food program in libraries. i came back and said let's do this, we really, we should do this. we needed a partner, and we were really fortunate to be contacted by beth morris with lynchburg city schools and they were able to be our sponsor, provide the food, so it became a reality pretty quickly."
The city is also calling on churches to adopt families in need. Kim Glenn says Saint John's Episcopal Church has already done just that.
"It became kind of an emotionally supportive experience on my end to help her get through those obstacles as well, and it has been a very fruitful experience. She is thriving, her daughter is thriving," said Glenn.
Through these connections is the only way Hughes says the city can hope to combat such an enormous problem.
"This is not a city, government, individual organization, non-profit, school issue. This is really a community issue, and we need to come together as a community to solve this problem," said Hughes.
Hughes says the City plans to work with the organizations and churches over the summer, and by the time they reconvene again in the fall, he hopes they will have made significant progress toward the City's goal of bringing 50 families out of poverty by the end of the year.