Jim Scheibel
12 September 2005
Jim Scheibel’s first job after college was with the agency for which he is now the director in St. Paul, Minnesota: Community Action Partnership. He served as the mayor of that city for four years and was on its city council for eight years. During the Clinton Administration, he served as director of VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America).
For Scheibel, the connections he made with people through a church in Washington, D.C., taught him that not even death can lift the burden of poverty. At the church, he tutored a student who lives with his grandmother in public housing. Twice he received calls asking for help in burying her family: her mother was brutally murdered and her sister died. Funerals are expensive, and because none of the family members owned a car, they had no easy means of transportation. In both cases, the church was able to help.
"Just finding a way to respectfully bury the dead adds to the sorrow and stress for low-income people," said Scheibel.
"I head the Community Action Partnership. We’re the anti-poverty agency for Ramsey and Washington Counties. We just did a declaration last fall that says we can end poverty in these two counties."
"Can we end poverty? Yes. Poverty is contrary to the core beliefs of our country. People are entitled to basic human dignity. Poverty denies people this basic human right by putting the elements of dignity out of reach: food, education, transportation, housing, health care, employment."
"Our global community has the resources available to end poverty. Two things are necessary to do that. They are what I call the will and the skill. When (former President Lyndon B.) Johnson first announced the War on Poverty he had the will—both the leadership and the country. We have to be committed and believe we can do it and make it the highest priority. And they have to put together the right kind of skills, which the War on Poverty did. For example, we said we had to address early childhood development and families and so we created the Head Start program. We need to provide people the tools and the skills so they can create healthy and vital communities."
"Ending poverty is a justice issue. People should have access and opportunity for basic human needs. We have the resources. Those resources should be spread."
"Sen. Paul Wellstone used to always say when one family is better off, we’re all better off. Everybody benefits when people are healthier, when all people have good nutrition, an opportunity for a good education, better jobs."
"It’s encouraging to me that today in Scotland, some leaders are talking about poverty in Africa and making it a priority. That shows some will. We’ve got a long way to go. It should be much higher on the agenda of this country."
"As a former elected official, I’ve seen that policy can make a difference and that we can change systems. When I was on the city council, St. Paul became the second city in the country to adopt a food policy. We looked at how to ensure adequate levels of food in the food banks and good nutrition for everyone. The committee efforts led to the farmers market in St. Paul accepting food stamps."
