The church is offering a free class called ‘Poverty 101” in conjunction with the Everett Gospel Mission.  The class will be held at the church on Saturday, June 25, 2022 from 9:00 to 2:30.  Lunch is included! 

Poverty 101 is an interactive series of exercises and learning experiences that helps our community better understand the unique challenges of long-term poverty and to assist individuals to better understand her/his own thinking about poverty and those experiencing poverty. It is designed to provide tools that will help each of us and our organization find the best way to engage with and come alongside people who are affected by poverty.

In completing Poverty 101 you will:

• Increase your self-awareness of life history and how that impacts your understanding of those experiencing poverty.
• Explore differences of socio-economic cultures.
• Understand different kinds of poverty – generational poverty, working class poverty, situational poverty, immigrant poverty, and depression era poverty - and how each kind of poverty differently impacts one’s views of self, God, and the world around us.
• Learn about communication/perception differences and how they impact healthy interactions with those experiencing poverty.
• Consider how systems might create barriers to change.
• Learn how your church or organization/agency and you can be more effective in ministry to those affected by poverty and homelessness. It is relational not transactional.
• Learn the difference between effective charity and toxic charity.
• Discover how ministry/service to those affected by poverty homelessness can increase your church/agency's outreach and your appeal to your community while strengthening your church/agency's family.
• Understand that we all share a “marred identity”, that is, from original sin and personal sin, and how understanding this allows us to humbly walk together, assisting each other in our life’s journey and walk with God.

This will be a great opportunity for our congregation to come together around how to be a good neighbor to those who are experiencing poverty in our community.  

If you are able to attend, please register on EventBrite HERE.     

Questions?  Please contact Jill Johnson at jilljohnson12@comcast.net.