For more than a quarter of a century, Tim Streett has worked to alleviate poverty in Indianapolis through a mix of hands-on, practical ministry and deep research into the forces that keep people trapped in a cycle of scarcity and dependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Streett is the intellectual driver of Shepherd Community\u2019s Poverty 101 course as well as the primary developer of the ministry\u2019s list of 10 assets a person needs to break free of poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Streett noted that Shepherd\u2019s approach to reducing poverty is built around building and maintaining relationships. In Poverty 101, Streett helps those taking the class to better understand the experiences of people living in poverty. They also are encouraged to think about their own assumptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPart of the great feedback we get on Poverty 101 is, \u2018This class didn\u2019t just teach me about who they are,\u2019 \u201d Street said. \u201c \u2019It taught me about who I am.\u2019 If we are going to establish relationships, that\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Streett, who recently completed a doctorate at Bellarmine University, was the founder of Jireh Sports, a near Eastside ministry that leveraged mentoring and sports to build into the lives of children and teens. In 2008, Jireh merged with Shepherd, where Streett now serves as assistant director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI affectionally call Tim the \u2018professor\u2019 because he\u2019s a master teacher,\u2019\u2019 Shepherd Executive Director Jay Height said. \u201cI think what\u2019s most important is his life experience. I\u2019m proud to say he\u2019s a colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Street\u2019s journey into urban ministry is rooted in a childhood tragedy. One night in the winter of 1978, Streett was shoveling snow with his father, a chaplain in the Army, when they were robbed at gunpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Streett\u2019s father was shot to death during the robbery. Tim Streett, only 15 at the time, witnessed the murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGod used a number of experiences over the next 15 to 20 years to call me to ministry in the city and to racial reconciliation — the three men who participated in the robbery that night we all black and were from the inner city.\u201d Streett said. \u201cGod eventually led me to go to the prison to visit two of the men and to forgive them. And one of them became a good friend. God used that experience and so many others to place his stamp on me to do ministry in the city and ministry with people in poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an educator and ministry lead who helps volunteers, business leaders, pastors and others learn about the realities of poverty in the United States, Streett said that the biggest misconception people have is that poverty is caused by a lack of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are so many things that people who grow up in generational poverty lack that people who group up in the middle class possess,\u201d Streett said. \u201cIf we think of poverty as a lack of money, then it\u2019s an easy fix. We simply give people money. And that in fact is what a lot of the government\u2019s work in alleviating poverty is about. We have been waging the official War on Poverty for nearly 60 years, and we really haven\u2019t made a big dent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Streett said a second misconception is that poverty is primarily a problem that involves ethnic and racial minorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI remember a conversation I had where I explained to a man that there are more white people than Black people on public assistance,\u201d Streett said. \u201cHe refused to believe that. I even showed him the statistics, and he refused to believe that the statistics on a government website were true. Poverty is colorblind. It affects all races.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Streett said much of Shepherd\u2019s work to help people leave behind poverty focuses on achieving and sustaining stability and not primarily on increasing income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIncome is a lagging indicator of stability,\u201d Streett said. \u201cIncome doesn\u2019t produce stability; it\u2019s the other way around. Stability ultimately ends up producing more income.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For more than a quarter of a century, Tim Streett has worked to alleviate poverty in Indianapolis through a mix of hands-on, practical ministry and deep research into the forces that keep people trapped in a cycle of scarcity and dependence. Streett is the intellectual driver of Shepherd Community\u2019s Poverty 101 course as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-shepherd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}