Kayla Rennie, of the Institute for Nonprofit Leadership; Pamela Larry, senior public health student; and Bethany Stravato, senior dance and nonprofit management student, talk together about the hidden rules of different classes during the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop Wednesday at Slippery Rock University. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

JOSEPH RESSLER

SLIPPERY ROCK — Food to a person in poverty can sometimes be seen as a luxury, just as long as they get to eat enough, while meals to a wealthy person are often more about the presentation and tastes.

That was the lesson learned Wednesday at Bridges Out of Poverty. Consultant Monica Bein explained to community members at a Slippery Rock University workshop how unspoken rules can influence interactions between different social classes, and how actions meant to be friendly can come across as uncomfortable or even disrespectful.

“If you are feeding people, it really could break relationships if you don’t choose the right food,” Bein said. “For a person in poverty, it’s about how much food they have. For a middle class person, it’s ‘What do you want, what are you in the mood for?’ For a wealthy person it’s about presentation.”

Many people in attendance at the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop were officials with social aid nonprofits and school districts, and Bein told them how they could improve their interactions with clients, who may have grown up in generational poverty.

The workshop, one of two this week, was coordinated by SRU, Butler County and Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV, which used American Rescue Plan money to bring the training to the area.

The Bridges trainings are based off of writings by educator Ruby Payne, who has penned several books on the culture of poverty and its relation to education.

Wendy Kinnear, Region 5 coordinator for Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV, said the organization decided to bring the training to SRU now because children in poverty are shown to have lost more during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was an understanding that kids in poverty lost more, there were a lot of barriers for them,” Kinnear said. ”This money is to make that better by building the emotional framework for understanding their situations.“

Making sure adults and leaders know how to interact with those young minds is paramount right now, Kinnear said.

“Bridges looks at people who have grown up in generational poverty and compares their perspectives to middle class and wealthy people,” Kinnear said. “The idea is to move away from being judgmental and be more comfortable dealing with people in the middle class but also know how to talk to lower class people.”

Administrators from local school districts attended the training, including several from Moniteau School District.

Dustin Thompson, co-principal of student affairs at Moniteau Jr./Sr. High School, said he was hoping to learn how he and other school workers could make a difference in students’ lives in everyday interactions.

“This training coming was a great opportunity to get everyone together,” Thompson said. “Administrators are key in our district and some of their opportunities can have a huge impact on our kids and families.”

In her talk, Bein explained about how perspectives differ among people who have experienced different levels of wealth. For example, personality is often a means of survival where humor is valued to a person living in or near poverty, while it is a means of achievement for a middle class person and a means of maintaining social status to a wealthy individual.

Bein also said improving relationships between social classes is best accomplished through respectful conversation. For example, casual language is better when speaking with a person from a lower socioeconomic status.

“In poverty it’s used for survival or defense, because if you are met in a dark alley in an unsafe situation, usually you don’t say ‘Excuse me, sir, can we just discuss this for another moment please,’” Bein said. “Language is used for different things and it is used in different ways.”

Also in attendance were nonprofit leaders who spoke about how anyone can fall into poverty.

Elizabeth Short, executive director of YWCA Butler, and Alice Del Vecchio, director of SRU's Institute for Nonprofit Leadership, said their organizations aim to tackle issues of poverty at the roots, rather than taking a reactive approach. Short said the YWCA aims to teach women skills they can use to improve their lives and break out of harmful situations.

Jayme Steighner, senior programs director at the Lighthouse Foundation, said she has been through many trainings relating to client interactions and social statuses, but the Bridges training gave her a unique view of how perspectives differed between social classes.

“My biggest thing is walking alongside them, not forcing people to do anything,” Steighner said. “We do a lot of mental health and addiction trainings and it helps us learn how people think and live, and seeing them not as a problem to fix but a different perspective.”

Mary Forbes, resident manager at the Lighthouse Foundation, also said that during the workshop she began reflecting on her own interactions with clients.

“What I got from this is there is such a huge difference in America between social standards,” Forbes said. “There is so much difference and it’s not emphasized.”

Throughout the training, Bein gave the participants opportunities to ask questions, but also talk to one another about their own perspectives regarding different topics.

Steighner's biggest takeaway from the workshop was discovering the different contexts people in poverty have, and she said she hopes to use this information in her interactions at work.

“It’s important to see how other people live and they might not have the same standards as you,” Steighner said.

Kayla Rennie, of the Institute for Nonprofit Leadership; Pamela Larry, senior public health student; and Bethany Stravato, senior dance and nonprofit management student, talk together about the hidden rules of different classes during the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop Wednesday at Slippery Rock University. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

JOSEPH RESSLER