“Below the Line: The Changing Face of American Poverty”, the provocative series featured on the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, has profiled a vast range of people living at or below the poverty line in the United States. The series has critically examined what it looks like to be poor in America today, by telling stories as varied as the young, African American, single mother of two children who lost her job at Enron only to find herself making less than $10,000 a year as a nursing assistant; a young married couple, graduate student and carpenter, trying their best to sustain a family of five on the land by growing a community garden; and the Ethiopian immigrant working full time at a meat packing plant, and part time as a child care provider in rural Minnesota.

Angela Glover Blackwell frames each installment from a public policy perspective, while respective experts offer insight and strategic solutions for the foreclosure crisis, living wage, inadequate health care, homelessness, transitional housing, and ex-offender re-entry, along with other issues faced by a growing number of Americans.

Now you can catch the entire series right here on EquityBlog:

Episode One
The series begins with Terreal Grant of Baltimore who is coming out of poverty and drug addiction with help from the Thompson Mobility Program [PDF].

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Two
The second installment features Cici Youngblood, a college graduate who describes her path to poverty as “riches to rags” and Jeff Page, a former DJ who went from fame to a downward spiral into homelessness after cancer. Both profiles illustrate how poverty is compounded by health and how successful programs (e.g. Rainbow Apartments) in Los Angeles’s Skid Row community work to meet these challenges.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Three
Reporter James Mills shares the story of Abeba Adella of Minnesota. Originally from Ethiopia, Abeba left an abusive husband, raises two children alone, and works two jobs to barely avoid poverty.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Four
From Augusta, Georgia, reporter Charles Edwards speaks with two residents who struggle with less than the federal minimum wage. Richard Sparrow suffered a back injury and was shunned by employers as an insurance liability. Unemployed since 1996, Richard lives on less than 700 dollars a month, over half of which goes to medicine. Sunny Johnson, a former Enron employee, describes the sacrifices she makes with her wages from her day and night jobs.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Five
New Orleans producer Eve Abrams brings us the story of Vanessa Nevilles, who is struggling to find a job with health insurance, and Keith Carter who was shunned from employment after an arrest and a lengthy legal battle.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Six
Executive Producer Cheryl Flowers visits Mississippi to find two stories of poverty in small rural communities. Mississippi is home to one of the highest concentrations of poverty in America.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Wrap Up
Dr. Cynthia Duncan, Founding Director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of the Opportunity Agenda, joins Tavis Smiley and Angela Glover Blackwell for the series wrap up and analysis.

[53 minutes | MP3]

Audio courtesy of The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI. Check your local listings for more from Tavis Smiley.

Prof. Douglass Massey’s new book, “New Faces in New Places: The Changing Geography of American Immigration,” offers up some important new data and perspectives in the movement to engage immigrants in the struggle for regional equity across the country.

Radio and TV talk show hosts and pundits often conjure images of destitute Mexican immigrants, hell bent on spreading their law-breaking ways and threatening sovereignty of our southern border. But Massey’s book provides ample proof that the face of immigrant America has changed dramatically in regard to race and class. The book documents how immigrants from Africa, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the globe are making important contributions to the economic and social vitality of cities, towns, and rural areas.

In this interview on New York’s WNYC public radio, the Princeton sociologist explains that we must understand and respond to the underlying economic factors that have fueled the dispersal of immigrants from traditional gateway cities (Los Angeles and New York City) and states to suburban and rural communities in virtually every region of the country.

Amidst the shrill cries to “restore the rule of law” — often through evermore draconian policies aimed at punishing hardworking immigrants — Massey reminds us that addressing the dilemmas posed by these new patterns of immigration is not as simple as militarizing the border and cutting off services to immigrant children and families.

In communities from the Midwest to the Northwest, where white populations are simultaneously declining and aging, immigrants are the key to economic and social revitalization. Small towns that rely on industries (e.g., agricultural sectors, food processing, hospitality, etc.) with significant proportion of immigrant workers would face even greater financial challenges if immigrants were to leave voluntarily or by force.

There are some business and government leaders who understand this. Thankfully, they are quietly building support among civic leaders to help residents understand and respond constructively to rapidly changing demographic, economic, and social realities. A key element of this new outlook is the willingness to challenge leaders to go beyond scape-goating to collectively analyze the changes most needed to strengthen their communities.

Lester Heitke, who serves as Mayor in Willmar, Minnesota is a good example of this new leadership. When conflict erupted in Willmar in 2004, as a reaction to an escalation of ICE raids targeting families that worked in surrounding industry, Mayor Hietke did not rely on business as usual tactics. He refused to remain silent. Instead, together with the Chief of Police, the President of the Community College, and some other local leaders, Mayor Heitke organized community forums to give local residents a chance to vent their frustrations with the raids and the underlying economic conditions.

Since those tumultuous days, Heitke has garnered buy-in from city department heads, business, community, and other civic leaders to develop a more informed and visionary strategy to respond to the challenges facing the entire community-immigrants included. See link below for details of the goals that were developed by a civic engagement process Heitke refers to as Wilmar 2020. As the name implies this strategy seeks to improve Willmar’s economic and social prospects by looking forward not backward.

http://www.ci.willmar.mn.us/menu/mayorcouncil/2020.htm

Trouble the Water fills the cover of the New York Times Arts section this morning. Manohla Dargis calls it “One of the best American documentaries in recent memory,” and one of the strongest films in this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films, by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art.

Read all of Voice, Eyes and Camera of Katrina Survivors.

Or listen to New York Times audiocast available below:

NetSquared, a very cool organization dedicated to helping nonprofits and NGOs use “powerful new online tools to work achieving positive changes,” is sponsoring a very interesting “mash-up” technology challenge that combines social media with data sets to create equitable change.

The top 20 projects will share the $100,000 prize money to turn their ideas into reality.

I haven’t gotten the chance to peruse all the submissions, but the ones I’ve seen have been wonderfully groundbreaking.

Joshua Breitbart, the guy who submitted the innovative proposal, “The Human Side of the Digital Divide,” suggests voting for these other social media projects (and I suggest voting for his, too):

• Community Based DigiMapping, from Media Alliance
• Mapping the Media Change Movement, from the Media and Democracy Coalition
• YourMediaWorld, from the Center for International Media Action
• Planning for the People, from the Burlington public access station

Voting ends at 5 pm EST tomorrow (Friday). Click on this link to vote. You will be required to create an account to vote, but NetSquared is an organization worth hooking up with.

UPDATE: Make sure you also check out “City of New Orleans: A Mashup for Citizen Monitoring of the Recovery,” a tool the designers hope will provide real-time tracking of the planning and demolition processes in New Orleans. The lack of transparency has been a major obstacle in crafting a truly equitable recovery in the city, so projects like this could be a major help. The New Orleans Housing Resource Center and New Orleans Housing Resource Center and ThinkNola.com partnered to create the idea.

Angela Glover Blackwell and Judith Bell recently thanked summit attendees in a letter.

“We have already heard from many of you that the summit was a singular experience—a truly special moment that helped put in perspective the breadth of all our work. In the past, many of us have been hesitant to describe the work we all do as an “equity movement.” But after seeing the impressive and powerful cross-section of advocates, researchers, and policymakers at the summit, there can be no doubt a movement is building—and gaining strength every day.”

Click here to read the whole letter.

Click below to view the attached slideshow:

This slideshow does require the Flash player, which is standard in most browsers. If you prefer photos only, visit http://flickr.regionalequity08.org.