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Poverty and Family

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Submitted By MommaTam
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Poverty and Family
Tammara L. Mounce
2/29/2016
Purdue University North Central
Dr. Muhammad

Poverty and Family
A large number of families and individuals in the United States live in a situation of poverty. Far too many youngsters are being raised as the children of the working poor. It is this particular area of poor that I am interested, as I can personally relate. I know many people in my situation, those that were not raised poor, but because of difficult circumstances, are now impoverished to different extents. Many of us are working professionals, but because the rate of pay in our area is so low, we cannot make ends meet. If child support laws were enforced, many of us would be in a far better situation.

A Young Man
I have the distinct pleasure to be a youth leader at my church. I work with the teenagers. I have been doing so for 20 years in some capacity. I am fortunate that these young people trust me and talk to me. One of the individuals that I interviewed was Eric. He is 17 and has lived in poverty twice. Once when he was 4, until he was 8. Also, he lives in poverty now, since he was 12. Tony’s mother is of the working poor. She has always worked to take care of him and his younger brother, Chris. The first time Eric was poor, was after his parents divorced. His father was drinking and using drugs to excess. He was dangerous, and his mother took he and his brother out of their family home to escape exposure to this sort of lifestyle. They moved into an extreme-poverty neighborhood and his mom did the best she could every day. Eric stated, “My mom worked two jobs, she paid for daycare, rent, utilities, food and everything else that we needed. My dad was very involved in his addiction; we didn’t see him very often. My mom was really sad and completely stressed out all of the time. She applied for assistance from the government a few times and

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