Elevate Others And Elevate Your Community In The Process: How This Works
Sir Thomas More's social ideals spawned many humanist ideals that others followed. One, in particular, was the concept of elevating the "lowly of state" to higher positions through education. He was one of the first people to conceive of a community where free education for all would help everyone grow in prosperity together. That idea is not lost since many community organizations still try to do this today. If you want to elevate your community by elevating others, here is how to do it.
Volunteer to Teach Adults
Approximately forty million Americans are not literate enough to hold down a job. Many of those dropped out of high school, too. Teaching adults the most basic of high school courses at nights and on weekends in a community center helps elevate their status. When they take GED classes and pass, they get their GED, which they can then take to a college or vocational school and elevate their own position in life. When they are elevated and there are fewer impoverished people because of it, your community is elevated in status, too.
Volunteer to Train Adults in Managing Finances
There are no programs in middle schools or grade schools that teach and train kids how to manage money. For the few schools that attempt to touch on that in the elective "home economics" courses offered by high schools, there are not many real-life situations taught. For example, budgeting is helpful, but budgeting does not account for a medical emergency or a lack of transportation.
As such, many young adults who move out into an apartment for the first time on their own have no idea how to manage money and end up moving back home again. Worse still are the young adults who do not move back home, but become homeless instead. Their position is elevated when volunteers show them how to manage money and finances in real-life situations. Being available to help them make sense of how quickly things can go wrong and what they can do about it to change their negative financial situation into a positive one elevates them and elevates the community as a whole.
Resources
People have to know that there are local and government resources that can help them get out of the lower status in which they reside. They have to want the help and they have to apply for it. Then they have to formulate plans, both short-term and long-term, on how to get out of these support plans as life turns a corner and heads upward for them. You can volunteer at job centers and provide them with these resources.
