I attended an event about poverty on March 28th. Nancy Newman was the speaker and director of a program called the Ark. This program was established in hope of aiding children and their parents who were truly impoverished or homeless. Her lecture focused on the children that she deals with and the effects that poverty and homelessness has on them.
Ms. Newman lived in a mixed neighborhood in Baltimore that progressively became worse and worse. It had gone from a nice area to one of extreme poverty and a low economic status. While living in this area, she helped to develop the Ark program in hope to provide a place where children of low or no economic status could be tended for during the day. Starting off as a daycare center, the Ark had blossomed into a certified preschool. Ms. Newman’s goal is to provide the resources that these children lack academically and socially so that when they leave the Ark, they are at least at the expected level of development of children their age.
Poverty is often understood as a lack of resources. The children that Ms. Newman aids often come from a state much more burdening than “a lack of resources”. For example, she shared a story about a single woman who was no longer available for welfare and needed to support and raise her children. This is truly poverty. This woman was left to raise three children on her own, but without support or a income to suffice. These are the types of impoverished families that Ms. Newman helps at the Ark. These families cannot afford the necessary resources to properly raise their children. This does not only include academic developmental resources, but food as well. Additionally, Ms. Newman and the Ark teach and care for homeless orphans. Although many of these children do not return to the Ark, they are always welcome. Everyday, she encounters stories from the children at the Ark about the soup kitchen food and where they slept the night before. Often times these children are not even lucky enough to sleep in the soup kitchen. They are left alone in the streets of Baltimore to fend for themselves. Ms. Newman displayed a true passion for these children and their situations. I was blessed to grow up in a nice suburban town, and the poverty that I am used to is normally considered a working class citizen. I was never familiar with situations such as these even in nearby economically struggling cities.
The Ark is a wonderful program that provides hope for homeless and impoverished children and families. The Year of the City provides Loyola students to become expose themselves to the good and bad of Baltimore. The Ark is a program that fits in perfectly with what we are trying to accomplish with the Year of the City. Volunteering with the Ark would involve interacting with people of the city that are truly in need (children especially). These children have nothing and often don’t even have a family or friend to take care of them. From my previous experience with Jesuit education, volunteering and doing good deeds does not only involve giving donations. A Jesuit fundamental is exposing oneself to a situation and interacting with people. Only then will one find true fulfillment in their good deeds. Interacting with these children is likely the best and most fulfilling volunteer work I’ve encountered. I hope that next year (or even this year) I will be able to find time to get involved with the Ark.
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