What is Poverty?

According to Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities, poverty is typically thought of in terms of financial resources only. However, the presence or absence of financial resources alone does not explain the differences in the success with which some individuals overcome poverty while others continue to struggle. Therefore, to better understand individuals who struggle with poverty, we define poverty as the extent to which an individual does without 11 different resources (Payne, DeVol and Dreussi-Smith, 2022, p. 3 & 5). These resources are: financial, emotional, mental/cognitive, language, social capital, physical, spiritual, integrity and trust, motivation and persistence, relationships/role models, and knowledge of hidden rules. Increasing any one of these resources raises all the others. The more resources one has, the greater the likelihood of stability. Investigating resources gives all of us positive things we can do to address poverty.