The Northshore Children & Youth Coalition

advocates for healthcare for all children

Livingston Parish Health Unit, 20399 Government Blvd, Livingston, LA
Minutes April 6, 2010

Meeting Objective:
Connecting Health Care Services to the Community

I. Welcome and Introductions:

Mary Corban welcomed attendees and invited all to partake of the meal provided
by Northshore Children & Youth Coalition through VOA. Mary announced that the
income limits for LaCHIP did not increase this year. Mary explained the
Affordable Plan and LaCHIP, including the income guidelines. There are over
711,000 enrolled in LaCHIP and Medicaid. Mary explained her new program, LA
Canvassers, in Tangipahoa and Washington Parish.

II. Guest Speaker: Janet Simmons, Hope Ministries

Janet Simmons explained that her presentation, Understanding the Dynamics of
Poverty, is a training course on how to work with people living in poverty, offered
through Hope Ministries. Here are some examples of what causes poverty:
• Personal choice – lazy, drugs, alcohol
• Human and Social Capital – education, communication, disability
• Exploitation and Oppression – payday loan, tax preparation, insurance loan
• Political or Economic Structure – food stamp policy, lose benefits as income
increases
• Calamity – divorce, circumstances beyond our control
In order to survive, people need resources. Some resources mentioned include:
financial, emotional, mental, language, spiritual, integrity, trust, physical abilities,
support system, motivation, persistence, and knowledge of the hidden rules. The
hidden rules are social situations on how we act in certain situations, such as
making sure you dress appropriately for a job interview. In the 40-hour
workshop, five of those hours are spent on the hidden rules. The hidden rules
are the driving force. For people in poverty, survival, relationships, and
entertainment are most important, living in the crisis mode with time being now.
The driving force for middle class is work and achievement to maintain a certain
lifestyle, with time being in the future. A study by Dr. Betty Hart and Todd Ridley
on language experience shows that kids ages 6 months to 3 years in professional
families heard 30 million words whereas kids in welfare families heard 10 million
words. In these same families, kids in professional families received
encouragement to be successful whereas kids in welfare families heard
prohibition. It is so critical to get kids beyond where there parents got in order to
pull out of poverty. The 40-hour workshop teaches how to encourage people to
step back and evaluate their lives in order to get out of the crisis mode.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting of the Northshore Children & Youth Coalition is scheduled for
Tuesday, May 4th, beginning at noon at LSU Ag Center in Washington Parish.