February 5, 2016
By Paul Joseph, Paragon Communications News Director –
A proposed, altruistic community program has failed – so far – to get any traction in Beckham County.
The initiative, Bridging the Gap, has been successful in other communities in a two-state area, but hasn’t been here. It’s designed to intervene in the cycle of generational poverty, reverse it and build sustainable communities.
Western Oklahoma Family Care Center Executive Director Tim Ball says the group started meeting about a year ago and began inviting many of the county’s “movers and shakers” to sit down and discuss and understand the scope of the poverty situation that exists in Western Oklahoma and in Beckham County.
According to flyers posted around the county last year before the very first meeting, “Bridging communities talk about poverty, prosperity and sustainability and those communities remove the barriers to success for those caught in the trap of poverty.” It also says that bridging communities restore belief in the American Dream and they create energy for change.
Ball says the group had several meetings but the fundamental, basic plan never came to fruition.
“Bridging the Gap” is an initiative of the Arkansas/Oklahoma Salvation Army, but was being carried out locally by the Western Oklahoma Family Care Center.
And, Ball says, neither he nor the other members of the county’s organizing group have seen any successes from their initial meetings.
Ball said – a year ago – his group of organizers cooked a free dinner for 100 for that very first meeting, but only about 40 showed up. Still, he says, it was a positive meeting, though fewer people.
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