Chatting with a resident.

Every now and again, the Neighborhood Advocates speak with the residents of the MPN to not only meet new people, but to get a sense of what’s going on in the neighborhood. Many times the conversations are short and sweet. However, more often than not, some can shed light on what its like to live in the Promise Neighborhood. Take a recent chat that one of our Neighborhood Advocates had with a resident in the MPN.

One of the residents, who we will call “Shannon”, is a 28 year old who lives with her husband and two children in the Houston Ave. area of the MPN. She works as a caregiver at Headstart while her husband is a driver for a pizza chain. What started out as a light chat about the weather turned into a discussion on living in general. Here is a portion of our chat:

MPN: So what is the biggest concern that you have as far living? What makes you lose sleep at night?


Shannon: Trying to pay bills and make ends meet; it's from paycheck to paycheck.


MPN: Are you on any government assistance or anything like that?


Shannon: Yea, food stamps and Medicaid


MPN: Do the food stamps help much?


Shannon: No its not very many, but it helps a little bit.


MPN: So are food stamps essential to living? Would it hurt that much if you didn’t have them?


Shannon: Well not really, I [didn't have them] before and treated it as another bill but after I had my second child, they gave them back to me.


MPN: What makes it so hard to make ends meet, then? What are some of the barriers that keep you from doing that?


Shannon: Well sometimes I have to put off paying one bill to pay another


MPN: Both of you work full time, but you still have to put off some bills to pay others. You ever thought about going into another field or back to school....


Shannon: Well I'm going back to Central Ga Tech this summer for early childhood education.


MPN: What do you plan on doing afterwards?


Shannon: I want to be a teacher.


MPN: So what exactly caused you to stop going in the past?


Shannon: I had to put it off for my family. Its kind of hectic to go back to school with them. I’m trying to work it out with their schedule, my work schedule, and my husbands schedule.


MPN: Yea I can imagine. Did you have transportation then?


Shannon: No.


MPN: How’d you get around?


Shannon: At the time I was staying with my Grandmother and she would take me back and forth to school. But we have one car so that will help a lot.

Mpn: No bus?

Shannon: *Laughing* I'd take it if it ain't take so long to get to campus.
Shannon is typical of many of the residents in the MPN. She is a hard-working, married, mother of two. She cooks meals for her family, helps her daughter with her homework, and tries to help others in her neighborhood in anyway she can. The work in the MPN can have a huge impact on the lives of residents like Shannon and that’s why the work continues.

Look out for more interviews with residents in the coming weeks.

Infographic: Poverty by the Numbers

As the economy continues to try to pick up some steam, there are still those who will never come out of it. Below is poverty by the numbers taken from NPR's series on poverty in America (click the NPR link for a larger image).