Understanding Poverty | Shelaine Strom
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Wendi and Shelaine Strom, National Education Lead at Food for the Hungry Canada and co-host of the Ending Poverty Together Podcast, chat about the value of fostering healthy relationships within our Canadian churches and communities. Shelaine helps us recognize that though we are all impoverished in some form, not all of us are equally vulnerable at a given moment. For some of us, our poverty is hidden, while for others, their poverty is more obvious. This profound understanding of poverty helps us walk alongside our neighbours with a posture of helping and learning at the same time, creating mutual transformation.
This episode will not only change the way you see and talk about poverty but will empower you to connect with your neighbours bringing communities closer together.
Ending Poverty Together Podcast: https://www.fhcanada.org/podcast/
Time Stamps
[04:03] Encouraging churches to attend workshops for community involvement.
[09:51] Supporting diverse communities in densely populated areas.
[12:56] Finding genuine and diverse connections in churches.
[16:35] Surprising career opportunity aligned with divine plan.
[17:40] Empowering people to solve problems, find hope.
[21:30] Gratitude for collaboration, hope for positive change.
Other Links
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Email: podcast@careimpact.ca
Listen To Journey With Prayer - A prayer journey corresponding to this episode: https://journeywithprayer.captivate.fm/listen
or get both podcasts on the same RSS feed! https://feeds.captivate.fm/n/careimpact-podcast
CareImpact: careimpact.ca
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Editing and production by Johan Heinrichs: arkpodcasts.ca
Transcript
Welcome to the Journey with Care podcast, and I'm so glad that you are
Speaker:here with us today. In studio today, we have Shalane
Speaker:Strom. Welcome, Shailene. Thank you. It's great to be
Speaker:here. And I'm actually sitting in your kitchen, and
Speaker:we are having tea and some delicious snacks here, and
Speaker:it's so good to be here in BC, in Abbotsford, BC.
Speaker:Shailene, you are the national lead
Speaker:National education lead. National educational lead, with
Speaker:Food For the Hungry Canada. You're not a stranger to Care Impact, but can
Speaker:you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? Well, I really
Speaker:appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation with you, Wendy.
Speaker:It's quite comical to me when I think back to how you and I
Speaker:actually got connected. Right. I had the opportunity
Speaker:to start something called ending povertytogether.org
Speaker:that is a library of resources
Speaker:contributed by to by many collaborators across the country.
Speaker:And it was through that that I actually met you,
Speaker:and that's where we began this journey of partnering and collaborating
Speaker:together men quite a few years ago now. Yeah. I was thinking back.
Speaker:I think everything good happens over a cup of coffee. I'm pretty sure it was
Speaker:one of those Starbucks in Winnipeg. You were in Winnipeg Uh-huh. And one of
Speaker:many to come. Yes. We have connected
Speaker:very easily after because we have a lot to talk about. We do. A lot
Speaker:of things in common. Tell us a little bit about Food For the
Speaker:Hungry, and and maybe we can discuss why we have
Speaker:chosen to partner with you in such a way. For sure. So Food For the
Speaker:Hungry is an international Christian development
Speaker:organization, and the Canada
Speaker:side of FH works in 7 different countries around the
Speaker:world. And our goal is really to see
Speaker:communities graduate out of poverty. And so
Speaker:what we do is we connect with a community
Speaker:that is really struggling and probably stuck,
Speaker:especially in material lack. And
Speaker:when they decide that they want to walk with us, we
Speaker:create this MOU of understanding together
Speaker:that we're gonna do this 10 year roughly 10 year journey. And in
Speaker:that time, the staff that, we have in
Speaker:the country are 98% of them are people
Speaker:who were born in that country. So we're not
Speaker:bringing people in from North America. We are looking at,
Speaker:neighbors working with neighbors, which I think is such a beautiful part of
Speaker:the way we do work. And I think that's one of the places where we
Speaker:connect with you. Yeah. I think that's where we did connect because we're
Speaker:like, we have this need as well. We have this need here in
Speaker:Canada for neighbors connecting with neighbors. Yes. Maybe it looks
Speaker:different in some of your other developing countries,
Speaker:but we in Canada have some work to do, and I think that's
Speaker:what got me interested. I attended some of your workshops as
Speaker:well. Yes. And that's one of the ways that we are involved in
Speaker:Canada is through our educational workshops. We
Speaker:have one called Wendi poverty together, and that's the one
Speaker:that I think was our first point of kind of connection
Speaker:where we realized that we are actually doing something
Speaker:that would be really beneficial for you and for your organization.
Speaker:And so now that ending poverty together workshop is part of your core
Speaker:training for people. And and it's one of those things that any church
Speaker:that is, working with us, let's say, on the
Speaker:CarePortal, and they are getting introduced into community needs
Speaker:through through the care portal requests that come through, we always suggest and
Speaker:recommend that they get involved and attend one of your workshops. Because
Speaker:I remember, I'm gonna sit myself back into that seat Wendi I
Speaker:attended my very first workshop with you, and
Speaker:I sat there and I said, oh my goodness. I took years I did
Speaker:my master's in global studies and and studying some of these concepts that
Speaker:were familiar to me, but the way you distilled it into something
Speaker:that could be taken within a day was fascinating. And
Speaker:I knew that there was something here that I wouldn't expect
Speaker:our churches to all go get their masters or go overseas to learn
Speaker:all the things, but there were some key concepts that could be
Speaker:understood, could be discussed around the table. It's very
Speaker:interactive. It's very practical. And I
Speaker:realized we need to talk because what is happening
Speaker:out there and some of the best practices, we need to learn how to be
Speaker:good neighbors here in Canada. And I think one of the things that
Speaker:you may be referring to is really the root
Speaker:of what we do in the workshop is address the root
Speaker:cause of poverty. And a lot of times Wendi people come to a
Speaker:workshop, when they just look at poverty
Speaker:within their city, it seems to be out there.
Speaker:Right. It's the homeless encampment that you drive by
Speaker:on your way to work every day. It's something
Speaker:that feels quite other to a lot of people within the church.
Speaker:The soup kitchens or the child welfare or or those other things
Speaker:that Exactly. Really inaccessible, it feels. Yeah. And so
Speaker:one of the things that we walk people through in the workshop
Speaker:is the Genesis account of
Speaker:how God created us to be in 4 key relationships.
Speaker:He wanted us and wants us to have relationship with Him,
Speaker:with ourselves, with others, and with the created
Speaker:world. And when sin entered in, those
Speaker:four relationships were broken, and that's when poverty
Speaker:began. So when you really sit with that for a bit, you realize
Speaker:that's all of us. Yeah. Every single one of us
Speaker:is impoverished. We are all in need of reconciliation and
Speaker:healing through Jesus. So that is a a
Speaker:ground leveling moment for a lot of people. And then you have other people,
Speaker:and, actually, I think it was the one that you attended who say, okay. Wait
Speaker:a minute. But now that that makes everybody impoverished,
Speaker:how how do we talk about this? How does that make sense? And one
Speaker:of the things that I think is helpful is to recognize we are
Speaker:all impoverished, but we are not all
Speaker:equally vulnerable Right. At a given moment.
Speaker:And we have poverty in different ways and in and in
Speaker:different, you know, different places. And for some of us, our poverty
Speaker:is hidden. It's more of a spiritual poverty or more of
Speaker:this desire to live independently, and so we don't have
Speaker:those deep connected community relationships.
Speaker:Whereas other people, the poverty is more material and
Speaker:perhaps more obvious then. Right. So that I
Speaker:think is really profound for people. The other thing that I think is
Speaker:so beautiful that comes out of that is this idea of
Speaker:mutual transformation. When I am walking along
Speaker:some side someone, I am not only
Speaker:being the helper kind of in a traditional maybe way that we
Speaker:use that word, but I am also the learner.
Speaker:If I have this understanding of poverty, then hopefully it creates
Speaker:a humility within me that says I
Speaker:have need and lack like everybody else, so I
Speaker:wanna be open to learn from the people that I'm walking with. Yeah.
Speaker:No. That's so good. And that's something that we're finding too at Care
Speaker:Impact and why this education is so important as we invite
Speaker:churches into responding to needs in the community that
Speaker:social workers or frontline ministries are are putting onto the
Speaker:portal. What we're finding I love that families are
Speaker:being reunified. I love that these teens are aging out and now
Speaker:have a community that is looking out for them and finding a bed and just
Speaker:saying, hey. Text me anytime. So those relationships are being
Speaker:restored. But one of the things that most beautiful things for us, because
Speaker:we're focused on the church, as are you, what I love is
Speaker:seeing the transformation happening within the church. So
Speaker:often we think out there, how can we make a difference? But we need
Speaker:God is so equally concerned about the transformation within our
Speaker:own hearts as a community that in Canada, I think we have a lot of
Speaker:work to do within the church. Do we know the person across the pew, and
Speaker:are we feeling vulnerable enough to say my day is not going well, can you
Speaker:pray for me, or can you watch my kids? And we just have so much
Speaker:to learn from our international brothers and sisters. Absolutely. I have the
Speaker:privilege of traveling to the communities that we work with, and I
Speaker:was just in Guatemala most recently. And to
Speaker:see the way that these community members have come together, and
Speaker:particularly during COVID, where in North America, we
Speaker:were experiencing incidents of loneliness
Speaker:and isolation and mental health issues at unprecedented
Speaker:levels. There it's not that there weren't issues happening in
Speaker:Guatemala as well, but we also saw these beautiful
Speaker:expressions of neighbors taking care of neighbors and communities coming
Speaker:together, and that's for us, it was this this wonderful moment
Speaker:of, hey. This is really working. Yeah. The work that has been
Speaker:happening is really working because these people are caring
Speaker:and loving one another. No. That's beautiful. Prior to to
Speaker:starting Care Impact, I was working in settlement community
Speaker:development, with The Salvation Army, and we had a
Speaker:lot of newcomer refugees, immigrants coming in, a lot of
Speaker:families from northern communities, remote communities from the indigenous
Speaker:population coming into this neighborhood, very densely populated,
Speaker:a lot of high social needs. However, I observed under
Speaker:the shade of a tree in the summertime and saw perfect strangers sharing
Speaker:chai tea under the shade. One thing I I I upload my
Speaker:my my staff and say, don't tell anyone that this isn't Canadian
Speaker:because they are actually helping transform our neighborhood. Absolutely. Bring
Speaker:them on. And so if any of our listeners are hearing that and
Speaker:they're saying, oh, we should help our immigrant population, the refugees that
Speaker:are coming, or or indigenous that are feeling displaced in an urban
Speaker:setting, It's not just that, yes, they do need neighbors. There, there's a lot of
Speaker:isolation. But lean in because the church needs them because they
Speaker:actually have the secret sauce to community. Yes. And
Speaker:besides, it tastes delicious. All the food and the the the the
Speaker:teas and the the coffees and the the laughter, even it it
Speaker:even spans language barriers when you're connected.
Speaker:Mhmm. Absolutely. And I think right now, something that sits deep
Speaker:within me, and I think you and I have had conversations about
Speaker:this, but something that sits deep within me is
Speaker:the need for breaking that relational poverty within
Speaker:the church and within churches working together
Speaker:with child welfare agencies, other organizations beyond the
Speaker:check writing, beyond the shoebox drives, but
Speaker:actually in relationship, could we wrap around these
Speaker:the most vulnerable together? And would they actually
Speaker:transform our best practices too? That we're not the
Speaker:rescuer. We are really walking in community.
Speaker:But what's your experience, working with the churches here
Speaker:in Canada? I recently was on the
Speaker:island in Victoria, and this church has
Speaker:walked with a community, Rio Azul, in Guatemala
Speaker:for many, many years. And what
Speaker:I got to experience in meeting them for the first time recently
Speaker:is the sense of community that they have, the
Speaker:sense of connection that they have with these people who live
Speaker:very far away from them and what they have learned
Speaker:from the community members in Guatemala and
Speaker:how important it is for them as a church
Speaker:that they have this outward focus
Speaker:and that it isn't just about what's happening within their own
Speaker:congregation, but they have this beautiful partnership
Speaker:that happens. And I actually believe that the healthiest
Speaker:churches are the ones who, yes, engage internationally
Speaker:and also engage locally. Yes. So that there is
Speaker:this healthy perspective of it's, it's not
Speaker:us and them. It's all of us together. Yes. And that we
Speaker:are, like we said before, we're all equally
Speaker:impoverished in this. And so how do we get connected with people
Speaker:who can actually really walk with us in our poverty? And they
Speaker:maybe don't look like the person you're accustomed to sitting with in
Speaker:the church. So this is just a it's a curious
Speaker:time with church, having just come through COVID, and, you know, we've
Speaker:talked about this. I don't know. Churches is it's a
Speaker:challenging kind of a a place to be right now for
Speaker:leadership, I think, because we've gone through this
Speaker:online season and trying to figure out how to get reconnected
Speaker:again. And so what I love about the
Speaker:work that FH does and the work that you guys do
Speaker:is that we really genuinely care about the health and the well-being of
Speaker:the church. Yeah. One thing's for certain, and we we gush over
Speaker:this. We both we love the church. Our organizations love the
Speaker:church. Yes. And, actually, our ministry is the church in
Speaker:many ways because organizations throughout history, they
Speaker:all come and go. And there's need for them, there's, there's value in them,
Speaker:there's expertise and wisdom in them, but the church is here to
Speaker:stay. And the church is called to to reach out to those
Speaker:around them that you can't have enough organizations doing all of
Speaker:that, what the church was intended to be. Mhmm. So what got you
Speaker:into FH, Food For the Hungry? Like, what
Speaker:what drew you in? What's your personal why? I
Speaker:actually worked for about 17 or 18 years in the career
Speaker:development industry or sector, And
Speaker:what's fascinating in hindsight is how much overlap there really
Speaker:is between international development that I'm doing now
Speaker:and the career development because there's a lot of principles that are
Speaker:very similar. So I did that, and then I ended up having a health
Speaker:crisis. When I was 14, I was hit in the jaw with
Speaker:a baseball, and it broke my jaw and damaged it quite
Speaker:severely. And so I had surgery at the time, which was
Speaker:a miraculous intervention and gave me a lot of
Speaker:years of relative health. And then
Speaker:in 2012, I started to have some serious
Speaker:issues, and I ended up having to quit work altogether and be on a a
Speaker:long term disability because I'm a talker. And
Speaker:if you don't have your jaw, it's pretty tricky to talk. So
Speaker:God gave me a different avenue for my voice during those 4 years that
Speaker:I was off, and I wrote. And I read a lot, and
Speaker:I was quiet a lot. And I remember standing by the kitchen sink
Speaker:one day, and I had just finished reading a book about a young woman
Speaker:who was working in Africa, and she was bringing
Speaker:young children into her home and just all of the challenges
Speaker:and and difficulties that she was facing. And here I was standing
Speaker:in my kitchen just watching water pour out of the
Speaker:tap and just crying and saying, god,
Speaker:why do I have so much? And it was a
Speaker:really physically painful set of circumstances that
Speaker:I was living in, and I was in a lot of physical pain, but I
Speaker:was also very aware that I'm very privileged.
Speaker:And it wasn't like God spoke audibly, but there was just this
Speaker:very strong impression at that time that it
Speaker:was just about timing. Just be patient. So fast
Speaker:forward, I have surgery. I have total joint replacement.
Speaker:I have this unbelievable long but great
Speaker:recovery, and it's time to go back to work, and the place that I worked
Speaker:before doesn't even exist anymore. Wow. So what am I gonna do now?
Speaker:And the beautiful way that god moved in
Speaker:showing me that I had 4 different
Speaker:things that I could bring to a career.
Speaker:And then I get this call from an old friend of mine
Speaker:saying, somebody over at FH would love to have some training,
Speaker:and so would you go and chat with them? And I get there, and I'm
Speaker:thinking I'm just gonna do a short contract, and it turns out I'm actually in
Speaker:a job interview. And those four things that God
Speaker:very specifically showed me that I could bring to a career or to a
Speaker:job were the exact four things that
Speaker:they were looking for for somebody to come in. And I
Speaker:I left that, and I said to my husband, I I can't say no to
Speaker:this. This is so clearly god ordained.
Speaker:But I didn't know a lot. I didn't think I knew a lot at that
Speaker:point about international development. And the more I've
Speaker:gotten I've been there six and a half years now, and the more I've gotten
Speaker:into it, the more I realize all of those years
Speaker:prior have been preparation for this. Wow.
Speaker:Because my heart is for people
Speaker:to grow and to be in right relationship with
Speaker:God and to be in those right relationships and to have their own
Speaker:sense of dignity and value and worth and to recognize
Speaker:that they can solve their problems. And that's one of the things I love
Speaker:about FH is we are an asset based approach. So
Speaker:we don't go into communities looking for what's wrong. We go in looking for
Speaker:what's right. Who are the people who sometimes we call them
Speaker:positive deviance, people who aren't doing exactly what everybody
Speaker:else is doing, and it's actually working. And so looking at how can we
Speaker:empower them? How can we help people envision their
Speaker:own future when they've felt like it's been
Speaker:hopeless? And that's really what I love.
Speaker:That's what God's called me to do my whole life, and so now I get
Speaker:to do it in this fantastic environment. Yeah. And and
Speaker:you do a really good job in educating. And those of you that
Speaker:have listened to or been part of some of her workshops, you
Speaker:will know that. But what I appreciate about you is you bring your whole self
Speaker:into it, your whole story. It's not just here's some cognitive learning, here's
Speaker:some slides, and let's let's do a workshop. You really live it
Speaker:out, and I think it's come through that personal experience of yours,
Speaker:bringing you it's not just a job to you, it's part of who
Speaker:you are. Well, and, you know, when we talk about the transformation
Speaker:that happens, there are things that I teach in
Speaker:those workshops that every time I go through
Speaker:it, I realize, oh, yeah. You know what? These are really great
Speaker:principles that I need to make sure I'm applying in my own life, in my
Speaker:own family, with my adult children, because
Speaker:they're things that just work. And teaching is makes you the best
Speaker:student. Right? You're always learning. Yeah. Well, and then because
Speaker:the workshops in particular are interactive, people bring their
Speaker:own experiences and lives to them. And so there's this great
Speaker:opportunity to learn from one another. Yeah. And so I get to be
Speaker:the student as well as the facilitator in these discussions. And I
Speaker:think that's why I've also connected well with you because with Care
Speaker:Impact, one of our main things is connecting with community and looking
Speaker:for those assets within, not looking at how is the system broken,
Speaker:but what are the the gifts and abilities and the strengths and the organizations
Speaker:and the the people that we believe everyone and and so do you.
Speaker:We we believe everyone has intrinsic value and is gifted and
Speaker:and called, into different lanes. But being
Speaker:able to connect with all of that and be able to work together,
Speaker:just that whole idea of, like, we are better together Yes. And
Speaker:we need to work together. Well, and then I think it
Speaker:it actually is more fiscally responsible.
Speaker:Absolutely. Why why duplicate? Exactly. We're not reinventing the
Speaker:wheel, and and we're letting people who are experts in a
Speaker:particular area be experts, and we're not
Speaker:threatened by that. We're saying, let's invite you in and let's do
Speaker:this together, and you be great at what you do
Speaker:and and help us because that's not our lane, but
Speaker:let's not try to be everything. And that's how we have a memorandum
Speaker:of understanding. Right? And and that's just a formality, but in
Speaker:practicality, we don't have to be the experts and the trainers of poverty.
Speaker:We can work with you and vice versa. We can work in the child welfare
Speaker:area, and we've been able to even co do some
Speaker:stuff together, and it it's been a lot of fun to, to work with you.
Speaker:Well, I just wanna thank you so much for coming on the podcast,
Speaker:letting me come to into your home. My pleasure. Anytime. It is fun. It's
Speaker:a treat, I'm not gonna lie, from doing Zoom that we could actually be
Speaker:together and drink tea together. Any final word or
Speaker:encouragement to to our audience that you would like to share? I
Speaker:would just say, again, thank you for all the ways that we have
Speaker:been able to collaborate. And my encouragement, the the hope I
Speaker:think that we have is that good work is happening. There
Speaker:are great things happening in a world where we often hear such
Speaker:discouraging and really frightening kinds of messages to
Speaker:know that there is hope, and that as we pull
Speaker:together and as we partner and invest
Speaker:in people through these deep relationships, that
Speaker:change is happening. And I would just say if you're
Speaker:interested in the workshops that we do offer, you can start
Speaker:by checking out fh canada.org/resources,
Speaker:and we always have any workshops that are listed or that
Speaker:will be listed there, anything that we're doing in the future, so that's a great
Speaker:place to start. And you can also check out careimpact.ca for the
Speaker:times that we'll be featuring you, and sometimes we promote your other
Speaker:workshops as well on our website, and, we would
Speaker:love to see all of you participate in one of
Speaker:these workshops in the future. And I can guarantee you, it
Speaker:it's gonna be a time well spent and not so much
Speaker:that you have to work for any organization, but simply how to be a
Speaker:good neighbor. If you wanna love across the street, if you wanna
Speaker:love the person in your community that you just are having a hard
Speaker:time connecting with or you're not sure how to get there, this
Speaker:workshop is for you. Thank you so much, Shailene, for being on the
Speaker:podcast. Oh, thank you for the opportunity, Wendy. Thanks for
Speaker:listening to the Journey with CarePortal where paths connect over real life
Speaker:stories and honest conversations. We hope you continue to join
Speaker:us on this journey of faith, reconciliation, and loving our
Speaker:neighbor. Journey with Care is an initiative of Care Impact, a
Speaker:Canadian charity dedicated to connecting and equipping the whole church
Speaker:across Canada to effectively journey in community with children and
Speaker:families in hard places. Learn how Care Impact is transforming the
Speaker:way churches engage child welfare with our CarePortal technology and
Speaker:academy training. To support this podcast or learn more about
Speaker:us, go to CareImpact ca or follow us in the show notes.
Speaker:We're so glad you are part of this journey with us as we journey with
Speaker:care even in the messy. Until next
Speaker:time.
