Poverty Scholars Program Leadership School Goals

Poverty Scholars Program Leadership School
Charleston, West Virginia
August 9th -15th, 2009

GOALS

Following are the Goals for the Leadership School as agreed upon at the March 2009 Poverty Scholars Program Strategic Dialogue Gathering:

To work together in Reigniting The Poor People’s Campaign: Finishing the Unfinished Business of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – in building a broad social movement to end poverty led by the poor – united across racial, geographic, religious and other divisions in order to win our human rights to housing, healthcare, education, living wage jobs, an adequate standard of living for all, and other economic rights – and in developing a communication and media infrastructure needed in reigniting this campaign.  To do this in the following ways through the Leadership School:

• Through our preparation for and our week of study together, to further define the scholarship needed to become a Poverty Scholar.  To support the continuing development of the Poverty Scholars Program as part of the Poverty Initiative.



• During this week-long Train-the-Trainers experience, to engage in study, action, and dialogue that will deepen and expand the core of community and religious leaders who have taken part in the 2008-2009 Strategic Dialogue gatherings and that will support their organizations to further develop in their local work plans for ongoing study as an essential part of leadership development and organizational sustainability.



• To define and engage in study of the following themes: economics, politics, art and culture/media, religion/theology, and the educational process (including topics such as the difference between charity and justice, concrete organizing skills and lessons, the current economic crisis, global solidarity and lessons from movements of the poor across the world).  To develop curriculum and methods of development/distribution of educational materials around these themes. To organize the school in a way that embodies the values of the world we want to live in.

To learn from the experience in Appalachia as we study the importance of history, strategy, place, context, and relationships to movement building.  To deepen, renew, and begin relationships with groups and individuals organizing in Appalachia that will strengthen their work and the work that we all do after returning to our respective communities.