Conservatives have great recipes for addressing poverty. But for those living in impoverished communities to become believers in those recipes we need more chefs – people and organizations in such neighborhoods living out the principles that work.
That’s how one of the country’s leading experts on urban renewal described the need for more entrepreneurial strategies to fight poverty. Bob Woodson is the president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and I interviewed him at the Heritage Foundation’s Antipoverty Forum in November. The annual gathering brings together researchers, policy leaders, expert practitioner, and communicators seeking “to help more Americans overcome poverty and social breakdown through effective principles in action.”
Woodson says he hasn’t been in a neighborhood where social entrepreneurs and healing agents don’t exist. But, according to Woodson, “the qualities that make them effective also render them invisible because they aren’t protesting, they aren’t whining and complaining. You’ve got to act like a Geiger counter and go and find them, they aren’t looking for you.”
Woodson is a man who knows of what he speaks. He’s also a great storyteller and persuasive communicator. I encourage you to watch my full interview with him.
