Studer Community Institute

Giving matters — now and all year long

November 28, 2013
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ community-dashboard

Why does giving matter? We spend a lot of time talking about it. We tell our kids to share even when they really don’t want their little sister or brother touching their stuff. We hear, especially at this time of year, to think of those who have less than we have and share with them as our Good Book commands. And Pensacolians are great givers. We have the largest chapter of IMPACT 100 in the world. In the world. The women of our community stand together every year to show the power that their pooled resources have to effect change. The Rev. Sylvia Tisdale gets up early morning after morning to feed breakfast to the homeless. Williemae Stanberry and the folks at A Will and a Way help women who being released from jail transition with faith-based counseling and job training to get their lives back on track. Good is done every day in this community. Because the need is great, and it doesn’t just exist at the end of the calendar year. We are the poorest metropolitan area in the state. Some 88,000 Escambia County citizens have no health insurance. None. In October, 62,959 people in Escambia county got food stamps. We have an incidence rate of child abuse that ranks us 10th in the state in terms of violence against children. Only about 23 percent of the county’s population has at least a bachelor’s degree or higher. It matters because the folks at Manna Food Pantries can make $9 buy a weekend’s worth of food for a Santa Rosa student who doesn’t have a place to live. It matters because Joe Sims, a son of West Pensacola who used a Take Stock in Children scholarship to go to college and become a social worker helping troubled kids. He still thinks about the 10th grade history teacher at PHS who “stayed on him all the time.” He wishes he could find Mr. Stone and say, “I know what you were trying to do for me.” In the meantime Joe keeps paying it forward, keeping the faith that even if they don’t hear him now, they will later. It matters because if you do not help the working poor in this community, those numbers I mentioned earlier won’t change. They may even get worse. And we will wonder why another generation of young professionals move away, why businesses that need a deep labor pool that is well-educated locate elsewhere. Giving matters because it is good not just for the soul of a person, but for the soul of a community as well. [progresspromise]

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Giving matters — now and all year long

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