Community Experience
For my community experience, I focused on poverty and welfare by interviewing Bryant Pankratz, who works for the LDS church Welfare Department. He has been working for the church for over 20 years.
The following are my notes from my interview with him:
What do you do?
- in charge of facility maintenance, repair and construction for welfare based structures in us and Canada: bishop's storehouse, DI, family services (counseling)
- obtaining funding for welfare projects (humanitarian for refugees, immunization, disaster (Texas), education projects (adults, refugee children (schools, classes, church works with partners to build schools, train teachers, clean water, wheelchairs, usually the first to respond to disasters, easier in US because of resources.
- church works through area offices to help with projects, natural disasters etc.
How does the welfare department help people in the states?
- natural disasters, refugees, food, homeless support etc.
- welfare (package foods used in US)
- employment rehabilitation,
development counselors (employment, DI, offices where they teach people job skills, church pays companies to employ people who usually end up being hired to work full-time by the company, helps build their resumes)
- self-reliance programs: learning financial skills, business, seeking better employment.
How has the welfare department helped to lower the poverty rate in the US?
-employment, supply food, find housing (done through his department for refugees and homeless, bishops help individually)
Are there any systems with schools that the church helps to support?
- church runs with respective partners like UNICEF, convoy of hope, catholic relief services
- help with health things (W.H.O.), immunizations, health education classes.
How are people helped? receive help?
-through church (bishop),
- through partner organizations (e.g. wheelchairs are given as government agencies are trained to know to help people get a wheelchair and repair them, donated by church kept up and running by people who were trained (self-reliance)
- teach others how to fish instead of giving them fish
How they help non-Mormons?
- some do not know of options available but we inform members around the world so that they can inform their friends and those they know are in need
- people contact church when they hear we pay for utilities, although that only ever happens when absolutely necessary (bishops are told to follow spirit and discern)
- church asks to have them do all they need for themselves (all done in the lord's way)
Personal experience:
- lady addicted to drugs, husband health problems, she needed to work for family, worked for DI (was kicked out for drugs), after rehab/ 12 step program (cleaning up), worked with employment help training, found a job, was fired because of past, DI helped her find another job, now makes enough to support.
12 step program= used and run by volunteer senior missionaries to help people overcome addictions/ personal weaknesses so that they can make changes in their lives and become more self-reliant. These programs are run all over the U.S. and the world for free and are led by volunteers. (I got to teach some lessons to a man wanting to overcome smoking on my mission)
D.I. (Deseret Industries)= product is people, help people learn job skills, teach people how to work in retail, look at goods, separating goods from junk, take all clothes and try to sell, bails unwanted but good condition clothes up and uses it for humanitarian aid, communication skills, take instructions (teams, leadership position)
As well as having this opportunity to meet with Bryant, I also looked at the state's website to apply for food stamps and was very shocked to see how hard it was to get food stamps. From the information I learned that you pretty much only are legible to receive food stamps if your house/family's combined income is so low that you cannot afford to pay for your own utilities and food. How are families who are struggling to pay for housing and food as well as utilities ever going to be able to have enough (e.g. the working poor, those with a low S.E.S.) to afford the cost of living?
That's why the programs set up by the LDS church's welfare program are amazing and I loved learning about different aspects in which the church helps those in need. Although it may be hard for people who are not affiliated with the church to receive help (unless they contact the church or organizations that work with the church that will then refer those in need to the church), help is always given where help us wanted.
My disruptions with this interview and the process of applying for food stamps is simple: It is not very known to others. As a teacher, I want to be able to be more aware of the needs of my students and hope that I can identify that through discernment and by getting to know my students and their needs. The church has a lot of programs set up to help refugees and its main focus is to simply help people get up and on their feet again. This reminded me a lot of our discussions in class on poverty and how we can help look out for those in need so that children get all they need to achieve academically and not get stuck in social reproduction (e.g. help them to graduate from high school so they can get good jobs and support themselves and their future families independently). Meritocracy is not real and these programs can help hard working people to get what they deserve.
The following are my notes from my interview with him:
What do you do?
- in charge of facility maintenance, repair and construction for welfare based structures in us and Canada: bishop's storehouse, DI, family services (counseling)
- obtaining funding for welfare projects (humanitarian for refugees, immunization, disaster (Texas), education projects (adults, refugee children (schools, classes, church works with partners to build schools, train teachers, clean water, wheelchairs, usually the first to respond to disasters, easier in US because of resources.
- church works through area offices to help with projects, natural disasters etc.
How does the welfare department help people in the states?
- natural disasters, refugees, food, homeless support etc.
- welfare (package foods used in US)
- employment rehabilitation,
development counselors (employment, DI, offices where they teach people job skills, church pays companies to employ people who usually end up being hired to work full-time by the company, helps build their resumes)
- self-reliance programs: learning financial skills, business, seeking better employment.
How has the welfare department helped to lower the poverty rate in the US?
-employment, supply food, find housing (done through his department for refugees and homeless, bishops help individually)
- church runs with respective partners like UNICEF, convoy of hope, catholic relief services
- help with health things (W.H.O.), immunizations, health education classes.
How are people helped? receive help?
-through church (bishop),
- through partner organizations (e.g. wheelchairs are given as government agencies are trained to know to help people get a wheelchair and repair them, donated by church kept up and running by people who were trained (self-reliance)
- teach others how to fish instead of giving them fish
How they help non-Mormons?
- some do not know of options available but we inform members around the world so that they can inform their friends and those they know are in need
- people contact church when they hear we pay for utilities, although that only ever happens when absolutely necessary (bishops are told to follow spirit and discern)
- church asks to have them do all they need for themselves (all done in the lord's way)
Personal experience:
- lady addicted to drugs, husband health problems, she needed to work for family, worked for DI (was kicked out for drugs), after rehab/ 12 step program (cleaning up), worked with employment help training, found a job, was fired because of past, DI helped her find another job, now makes enough to support.
12 step program= used and run by volunteer senior missionaries to help people overcome addictions/ personal weaknesses so that they can make changes in their lives and become more self-reliant. These programs are run all over the U.S. and the world for free and are led by volunteers. (I got to teach some lessons to a man wanting to overcome smoking on my mission)
D.I. (Deseret Industries)= product is people, help people learn job skills, teach people how to work in retail, look at goods, separating goods from junk, take all clothes and try to sell, bails unwanted but good condition clothes up and uses it for humanitarian aid, communication skills, take instructions (teams, leadership position)
As well as having this opportunity to meet with Bryant, I also looked at the state's website to apply for food stamps and was very shocked to see how hard it was to get food stamps. From the information I learned that you pretty much only are legible to receive food stamps if your house/family's combined income is so low that you cannot afford to pay for your own utilities and food. How are families who are struggling to pay for housing and food as well as utilities ever going to be able to have enough (e.g. the working poor, those with a low S.E.S.) to afford the cost of living?
That's why the programs set up by the LDS church's welfare program are amazing and I loved learning about different aspects in which the church helps those in need. Although it may be hard for people who are not affiliated with the church to receive help (unless they contact the church or organizations that work with the church that will then refer those in need to the church), help is always given where help us wanted.
My disruptions with this interview and the process of applying for food stamps is simple: It is not very known to others. As a teacher, I want to be able to be more aware of the needs of my students and hope that I can identify that through discernment and by getting to know my students and their needs. The church has a lot of programs set up to help refugees and its main focus is to simply help people get up and on their feet again. This reminded me a lot of our discussions in class on poverty and how we can help look out for those in need so that children get all they need to achieve academically and not get stuck in social reproduction (e.g. help them to graduate from high school so they can get good jobs and support themselves and their future families independently). Meritocracy is not real and these programs can help hard working people to get what they deserve.
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