Push Against Poverty

In Mount Vernon we gathered enough resources and raised money to give basic aid to 40 impoverished families. We assisted them through food assitance, basic household items, and clothes if needed.We then stayed in contact with them to have someone to walk with them whenver they needed help. We had the social capital to do this because NBC-10 in Columbus, Ohio ran a story about us on TV, we were endorsed by the United Way of Knox County, the Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis, Congressman Zack Space met with me, and Daniel Graves (our president) was recognized as the 2009 Youth Hero for the Knox County Red Cross. Out of all the 40 families that we helped, the most touching story was from a lady named Patricia Mercer. When the students were going door-to-door doing the surveys, one of the girls came back to me and said we had to help out Patricia and her family right away. Wegave Patricia a call and discovered that her family was going to get evicted from their home. Although that was not an uncommon story at the time what grabbed us was when she told us that she was taking in abused children into her home that were getting abused by her parents, and she would do this willingly, for free. Yet she said “now that I am in risk of losing my home no one was there to help us out until you guys came knocking on our door.” So we decided that something had to be done to find her a temporary place to move into. Upon discovery it was found that her aunt had a vacant house on the east side of town, but it was in an unlivable condition. Thus, our school chaplain, our principal, and I organized a crew of 30 students and took a whole day to refurbish her home. Patricia and her family are now living there because of that work. However, although being a wonderful story, Patricia’s case is not a rare one but one out of millions of impoverished families across America, and one out of thousands here in Cleveland. That is we as students have launched the main branch of Push Against Poverty as an official student organization at Cleveland State University. On November 18 of 2009 we had a televised press conference at Cleveland State University Urban College with city leaders, politicians, and clergy to announce our efforts in Cleveland.These efforts are also supported by Cleveland State University.