Upward Mobility in the Upstate
by Anna Brannigan on Nov 16, 2018
For one of our recent Facebook Live Fridays, we were joined by Faith Adedokun from the Network for Southern Economic Mobility (NSEM). She and Courtney Thomas went live to discuss economic mobility in the Upstate. NSEM is a group of Southern communities, formed in order to bring cities together and figure out how to move the needle in the communities that have the hardest time rising out of poverty. Community leaders in these cities work together to find solutions to help youth escape poverty.
Watch the full video on their discussion here:
We are LIVE with Faith Adedokun at noon to discuss economic mobility in the Upstate, and particularly for women. Drop us a ⭐ in the comment section if you're watching. #SCWREN
Posted by Women's Rights and Empowerment Network- WREN on Friday, October 19, 2018
Here are some important points from Faith and Courtney’s conversation:
- It is extremely difficult for a child born in poverty to change their situation. Approximately 8,000 youths in Greenville are considered disconnected, i.e. not in the educational system.
- Greenville is high on the list of cities where it is difficult to rise from the bottom to the top. A ripple effect of this on the larger community is the shortage of jobs in the area, which suggests that people are not rising evenly. “Education is not the silver bullet to solving problems of economic mobility, but it is a large part of it.”
- There is not a single solution to improving economic mobility.
- NSEM is trying to find tangible ways in which the community can act to improve the lives of youth in Greenville and the state. They are working on changing the conversation to incorporate areas that need improvement while not diminishing the good work being done in the city. The community must see where the deficits are to understand the scope of the problem and draft solutions.
- The Infrastructure of Opportunity is a concept NSEM learned from MDC. This is meant to convey that there are many factors that affect upward economic mobility that often get ignored. It incorporates racial segregation, income inequality, family structure, among other things as factors that keep youth in poverty.