I have good news and not so good news regarding counties in Oklahoma classified as “high poverty” (having a poverty rate of 20% or higher; the poverty rate is defined as the number of families with pre-tax income less than $23,492 for an average family of four).
The good news is that Haskell and Latimer Counties are no longer designated “high poverty” counties by USDA Economic Research Service!
However, six counties were added to the list of “high poverty” in Oklahoma:
· Atoka County
· Cimarron County
· Delaware County
· Kiowa County
· McIntosh County
· Muskogee County
These join an additional 15 counties already designated “high poverty”:
· Adair County
· Caddo County
· Cherokee County
· Choctaw County
· Coal County
· Harmon County
· Hughes County
· Johnston County
· Le Flore County
· McCurtain County
· Okfuskee County
· Payne County
· Pushmataha County
· Seminole County
· Tillman County
Extension has resources to help facilitate a dialog in your county about poverty, and it has programs to identify strategies to address local issues related to poverty. More specifically, there is a one-hour presentation entitled “Poverty in Oklahoma: How Can We Turn the Tide?” available from the FCS Educator Resources D2L site (there is also a leader’s guide which provides a script and detailed instructions on using this presentation in your community available). Additionally, Jan Maples, Jessica Nickels, Brenda Miller and Sonya McDaniel are trained facilitators of a poverty simulator that can be an effective tool for raising awareness of poverty and the issues surrounding it; the poverty simulation kits are located in Garfield, Okfuskee, Comanche and Pottawatomie Counties.
If you are interested in a more in-depth poverty program for your community, Renee Daugherty has piloted the “Turning the Tide on Poverty” program from the Southern Rural Development Center (http://srdc.msstate.edu/tide/), while Dave Shideler, Lindsey Miner and several county educators have been trained in the “Bridges Out of Poverty” program being implemented statewide by OKDHS and The Salvation Army (http://www.bridgesoutofpoverty.com); these programs provide more detailed facilitation and program development to enable communities to systematically address causes of poverty and assist individuals to transition out of it.
If you have any questions, or need further assistance in addressing poverty in your county, don’t hesitate to contact me!
Dave Shideler
Assistant Professor and Community Development Specialist
Department of Agricultural Economics
Oklahoma State University
323 Ag Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
405-744-6170
http://rd.okstate.edu
Follow my blog Oklahoma Extension Development Resources
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