Inspiring & Equipping Communities To End Poverty The mission of Move the Mountain Leadership Center (MTM) is to inspire and equip communities to end poverty. Move the Mountain Leadership Center provides transformational leadership and planning programs to align leaders and their organizations to high impact strategies that can reduce and eventually end poverty. The Circles Campaign™ was initiated by Move the Mountain to provide transformational leaders a structure to engage the community in ending poverty. Join us on Facebook
 

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United action on poverty pushed in Westmoreland

TRIBUNE-REVIEW - Friday, May 9, 2008 
By Paul Paterra

The common theme for Poverty Summit 2008: It is possible for people to come together to end poverty.
Some 175 people took part in the summit hosted by Westmoreland Community Action Thursday at the Four Points Sheraton, east of Greensburg. The event included a number of seminars dealing with various aspects of poverty. Those in attendance included Westmoreland Community Action staff members and members of other community action agencies.

"The more education we can do about poverty in the county the better off we're all going to be," said Tay Waltenbaugh, Westmoreland County Action's chief executive director. "We're also asking people to participate in how we might be able to eliminate poverty in our county. Along with education, we're asking people to volunteer."

"(The summit is) an educational experience for all of us, which I think is very important," said Sharon Miller, of Westmoreland Community Action's Next Step Supportive Housing Program. "I think people need to coordinate, work together and understand what each one's trying to do."

Relationships were a focal point of a seminar hosted by Eileen Wallace called "Circles: Bringing Everyone to the Table to End Poverty." Wallace, of New London, Minn., is the executive director of Move the Mountain, a leadership center focused on ending poverty based in Ames, Iowa.

"By building relationships, intentional relationships that cross class and race lines, a community can come together to end poverty," Wallace said. "Good things happen when you really trust the wisdom of the community. Great things happen, remarkable things happen. I've seen it happen all over the country. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith on that."

Renee Rose, of the Prevention Network in Beaver County, said she found the seminar on self-sufficiency standards to be educational.

"I have clients coming into my office constantly," Rose said. "They want to live a life where they're working and they're legal and they're paying for rent and they're paying for different things and they don't know how to budget. My job is to help them be self-sufficient. This is helping me to help them to be self-sufficient."

Poverty Summit 2008 culminated with a banquet and awards ceremony that honored people who had a positive impact on low-income families in Westmoreland County.

The summit was the first of its kind, but Waltenbaugh hopes to make it an annual event.

"Next year we're going to gauge more of the community and other nonprofits to expand our horizons," Waltenbaugh said. "We're bringing people in (this year) that pretty much work in our field. That doesn't necessarily mean we all understand exactly what our community and county is all about. Starting at this level first and moving down into the individual communities and the general public will be very helpful."