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OK, here is something with wonderful intentions from OneAthens, but I'm unsure about its role in our fight against poverty.
For starters, again I say ... non-profits have been doing this for quite some time. Mercy Health Clinic is a free medical clinic for low-income citizens, while AIDS Athens offers similar services. The proposal for the ARCH group that is getting a portion of the pie from the Navy School moving has plans for large-scale free medical clinic to further expand services.
I'm not arguing that we don't need to find ways to expand our coverage in town, but if we're only offering basic coverage and not more complete insurance, then I'm puzzled how this does anything. I'd rather see a concerted effort to develop an uninsured/small business insurance pool, drawing from exisiting providers who are supportive of the group's efforts, that could cover a broad area throughout Northeast Georgia where grant money could assist with costs for low-income citizens, while small business owners would be able to pay premiums that help as well.
I know I've seen quite down on OneAthens as of late, and be sure to know that I'm not saying this isn't a good idea from OneAthens - most, if not all, of their ideas are very strong - but my concern is that, on the whole, the more recommendations I see coming from them, the more I see that services like those already exist in town. And rather than work to supplement and expand them, the group often acts like they were never here to begin with.
For starters, again I say ... non-profits have been doing this for quite some time. Mercy Health Clinic is a free medical clinic for low-income citizens, while AIDS Athens offers similar services. The proposal for the ARCH group that is getting a portion of the pie from the Navy School moving has plans for large-scale free medical clinic to further expand services.
I'm not arguing that we don't need to find ways to expand our coverage in town, but if we're only offering basic coverage and not more complete insurance, then I'm puzzled how this does anything. I'd rather see a concerted effort to develop an uninsured/small business insurance pool, drawing from exisiting providers who are supportive of the group's efforts, that could cover a broad area throughout Northeast Georgia where grant money could assist with costs for low-income citizens, while small business owners would be able to pay premiums that help as well.
I know I've seen quite down on OneAthens as of late, and be sure to know that I'm not saying this isn't a good idea from OneAthens - most, if not all, of their ideas are very strong - but my concern is that, on the whole, the more recommendations I see coming from them, the more I see that services like those already exist in town. And rather than work to supplement and expand them, the group often acts like they were never here to begin with.
posted by Jmac at 7:42 AM
3 Comments:
Here's the pertinent passage in that story...
"I don't know," she said. "I've been trying to figure out what we as a commission need to do with this report."
There lies the PPA rub.
From the very first meeting and all the way through today, PPA/OneAthens has acknowledged that there are lots of agencies already addressing these issues but, we don't seem to be making a lot of progress. The idea is to try to get better coordination between them. Of course, there are also lots of overlaps and duplications so, there is an additional focus on improving efficiency.
There are also lots of turf battles looming large.
I said this below in the post about OneAthens taking funding from existing nonprofits, but here it is again...
Each non-profit defines its own focus and audience and rules. So it's not too unusual to run across people who aren't eligible for certain types of help from ANY local nonprofit. It's also not too unususal to run across people who are eligible, but have trouble figuring out how to get the help they're eligible for -- because they're only offered at location x between the hours of y and z, for issues a, b, and c requiring qualifications d and e. (edit from below: and, of course, the nonprofits generally take on the work they can afford, which may not be on the scope necessary to make the impact we need to seek as a community.) And of course some only provide services to people within a religious framework, which can also be off-putting and coercive to someone who can just choose to keep not getting help.
Which is to say that if you're trying to reduce or eliminate poverty, there are two ways to do so. One involves assessing what you have and simplifying information and access to it -- as Community Connection does. But that still doesn't resolve the gaps that exist among the services offered by the nonprofits. To resolve that kind of problem, and to make the decisions that need to be made from the perspective of a community-wide attack on poverty, resources must be dedicated to address the issue in a comprehensive, non-territorial way. And if that's what OneAthens wants to do, then I support that.
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