A public lecture by Dave Benson (executive director of the Damiano Center) happened to a standing-room only crowd at 5pm in the UMD Library Rotunda. I had to sit in the next room and listen intently.
The Damiano Center provides meals, clothing, and other emergency assistance to people living in poverty in Duluth. Benson has been at the Damiano Center for seven years and has also worked as a teacher, writer, editor, and naturalist. For more information about the Damiano Center, see damianocenter.org.
For me, the central revelation was the ways in which people cycle through poverty. The poor are not, he said, a permanent underclass. Rather, people fall into poverty, and then move through poverty. We don’t have the problem of a permanent underclass (which raises questions of “responsibility” and “dependence”), but instead we have a state of emergency into which too many fall…
An awesome talk, and an awesome example of the work Shane Courtland does as the director of the center — bringing the expertise of the community to the university.