After working for six years with low-income, at-risk children and families in an urban setting, there are two things of which I am convinced:

1. That the solutions to the problem of urban poverty are as complex and elusive as its numerous causes.
2. That many poverty alleviation approaches and programs are doing more harm than good.

But the outlook isn’t hopeless. In their book, When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development, lay out a theology of and principles for poverty alleviation, which if applied to the urban centers of our country, offer hope for significant and lasting change. The book targets the Christian community, providing tools to evaluate and maximize our efforts to help the materially poor.Their underlying premise is that God made us for relationship - first with Himself, then with self, others, and creation. Poverty, they suggest “is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.” If we accept this presupposition, the goal of poverty alleviation efforts becomes more than better education, good jobs, and financial stability, as important as these are. The broader aim and the greater good lies in the restoration of these foundational relationships. Thus, efforts to relieve poverty require a holistic and highly relational approach in order to succeed. A second implication of this definition of poverty is that every one of us is impoverished, since we are all fallen, sinful people who fail to experience these relationships as God intended. This reality levels the playing field and allows us to view all people as equally needy.The authors suggest three approaches to issues of poverty: relief, rehabilitation, and development. Relief is described as “urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering...” Rehabilitation “seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions” by working collaboratively with them. Development is “a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved - both the ‘helpers’ and the ‘helped’ - closer to being in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation. In particular, as the materially poor develop, they are better able to fulfill their calling of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruits of that work. Development is not done to people or for people but with people.” Development recognizes and draws out the assets (wisdom, skills, and resources) of the materially poor in seeking solutions to their problems. Unfortunately, although “development” holds out the greatest hope for long-term change, “relief” is typically our default mode, primarily because it’s quick, cheap, and easy.Our challenge as individuals and members of the body of Christ is to become part of the solution:

• To become familiar with the problems and issues in our urban centers.
• To support organizations that are working holistically in the cities near us.
• To find ways we and our churches can be engaged with the urban poor. Highly-relational programs that provide assistance with career planning and skills training, money management, housing, education, and health care, with an eye to both broken individuals and broken systems and with a focus on “development” will help assure that our helping helps.

Beverly HenryUS Vision Team, eduKenya**Check out these great organizations helping to transform Camden, New Jersey (http://www.urbanpromiseusa.org) and Wilmington, Delaware (http://www.urbanpromise.org)