Testify

This evening I had the opportunity to speak to our City Council regarding funding for our city's Social Service Programs. Each person testifying tonite was allotted three minutes to speak. It will probably take you much longer to read.

Here's my testimony:

I'm here this evening because I would like to give you all a picture, a snapshot if you will, of the ways in which my very average, very ordinary life has intersected with some of the crisis need that exists in our community.

My oldest daughter will be graduating this Spring from Blah Blah High School; but a few years ago, when she was still in middle school, her father and I learned that one of her classmates, had begun prostituting herself and that she had done so, because having one parent in prison and having been abandoned by her remaining parent, this fourteen year old girl believed she had no other means of securing food and shelter. It's now four years later, and I still can't quite get my mind around the fact that a fourteen year old child was selling her body on our city streets because she, through no fault of her own, had found herself bereft of food and shelter.

Bereft.

People don't use that word any more, but I've deliberately chosen it for tonite because bereft means grievously denied.

And if that story isn't shocking enough, I can tell you since that time, I've met other young people who've experienced similar difficulties and who've also been grievously denied the necessities of life.

If I had more time, I would tell you about the 10 year old boy who was visiting us in our home and confided that his family didn't always have enough food eat. Or I would tell you about the single mother of two elementary school age children, who was terminally ill and had her utilities shut off in mid-February because of her inablity to pay her power bill.

Or maybe I would tell you about the homeless single father and his teen son whom we welcomed into our own home because at the time when they needed shelter most, the family shelters in our city were already full.

I realize that the General Fund dollars available for funding social services are dwindling, but please, you must understand that crises need in our community is rising. Now, of all times, is not the time to cut $50,000 from the social services budget.

I'm sure you've all heard that saying that says, "a community is only as strong as its weakest link"? Well there's a second part to that saying which we don't often hear that says, "the weakest link is also the strongest link, precisely because it is the one link with the greatest potential to break the chain."

I believe underfunding social serivces at this critical time, will weaken the social services link in our city's chain. And if that link breaks it will do so at enormous human cost and significant financial cost to our city as well.

Thank you for letting me testify this evening.