Poverty. The causes of it are a chicken or the egg discussion.

Some say it is caused by lack of education. Others might argue addiction is a culprit. Others might suggest that teen pregnancy is a root cause? The causes can be many -- or only something like a critical illness or the loss of a job during these difficult economic times.

Solutions are not simple, but those who work with impoverished individuals in Kings County are coming together to find ways of helping people escape the cycles of poverty that have drawn national attention to this region-the new Appalachia as some describe it.

A continuance of last year's Bridges Out of Poverty conference is scheduled for Wednesday at the Hanford Civic Auditorium. This time the focus is on education as a vital key to solving the problem and eradicating poverty from our communities. It will bring together representatives from education, health care, social services and the workplace to spend an evening with top-selling author, speaker, publisher, business owner and career educator, Dr. Ruby Payne. Her aim is to help find creative and practical solutions to the challenges of working across socioeconomic lines to build sustainable communities. She has more than 30 years as an expert on the mindsets of economic classes and on crossing socioeconomic lines in education, work and for social change.

The list of sponsoring organizations for Wednesday's educational summit is long -- from several colleges in our county (Chapman, COS, San Joaquin Valley and West Hills) to Kings Community Action Organization, the lead agency on poverty in the county, to the Family Resource Center Collaborative, a group of resource centers from throughout Kings County that cohesively work together to provide services to families impacted by poverty, to representatives of family, youth and children's services agencies as well as health care organizations in Kings County. They have come together during the last year to form action teams.

A recent countywide dental health clinic, hosted by Kings Community Action Organization, was one outcome of last year's conference. It was made possible by the cooperation and collaboration of two major health care organizations in Kings County, Adventist Health and Family Health Care Network, and many of the other family, youth and children' s services agencies that have been contributors to the action team process.

If we are to successfully deal with issues of poverty, to develop strategies that will help eradicate it from our communities, we should look to the history of barn-raising. People in a community would come together to help build a barn for their neighbors. They brought with them skills and abilities that they shared for the good of the family they were helping. The benefitting family then was able to sustain itself and contribute to the economic good of the community. The entire community benefitted.

Barn-raisings may have gone out of fashion but the concept of citizens coming together to help an individual, who then in turn can help society in general, is as important today as it was 100 years ago. The Kings County "action team" groups led by KCAO, that resulted from the 2008 Bridges Out of Poverty conference are the barn-raisers of the 21st century. Action team members have come to realize by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

Garner is community outreach and marketing director for Kings Community Action Organization.

(March 15, 2009)