Talking About Poverty & Unhoused People With Children

Building Community Through Kindness to Foster Empathy:

Every year when I owned a preschool I coordinated with the families to Adopt-a-Holiday Wishlist for a family living in poverty.  This commitment was very important to me.  Not only was it an opportunity to share kindness, but also a way help kids develop an empathetic mindset about people living a different life experience then their own.

Talking to Children About Poverty

Poverty is not an affliction, it is not something people want or need to be reminded of. It is something we must develop dialogues around, understandings for, and teach children how to navigate conversations about using empathy. 

Empathy comes from a place of understanding, not pity.  This can be particularly hard when you are processing feelings that invoke sadness or sorrow.  It is easy to get caught up in ‘feeling sorry’ before recognizing that we are all people with shared needs.

Picture Book Recommendation:

Every topic benefits from a great book. It helps make connections, develop meaning and provide a space for exploring experiences. The One With the Scraggly Beard by Elizabeth Withey & Illustrated by Lynn Scurfield is an amazing book that explores poverty and houselessness from a personal perspective.

Withey’s story was inspired by her son meeting his uncle, who has been living on the street for several years. It lays a beautiful framework for encouraging empathetic dialogues. She carefully weaves the words to show that the One with the Scraggly Beard  is a person that was once a boy. 

Using the ocean to demonstrate that life has days full of sunshine and calm, while other days are full of storms, the pictures engage children without overwhelming them. The story line is carefully crafted to show the humanity of someone living on the street and how they have similarities and differences, just as all people do.

How to Use This Book to Encourage Empathy:

Poverty is a challenging topic, and like most difficult topics, it takes practice.  Even with practice you won’t always get it right or say it exactly as you’d hoped.  This is ok, don’t let this stop you from sharing these important conversations. 

When I work with children, I use picture books to help provide perspectives that don’t typically fall within their personal experience. I use conversations and questions to link what we are reading to introduce ideas or talk about assumptions.

Background conversation to develop understanding of topic: (age 4-10)

Discussion Question:

What are the things that all people on the planet share in common?

Focus Points:

1. Food/water
2. Shelter/clothing
3. Community/connection

Using this as a framework for reading the book, ask and answer questions while you read. Use language to guide empathetic mindset by focussing on sharing kindness versus pity.

Topics to Explore:

 Access and resources for: 

•  Personal hygiene, washrooms, showers, laundry, clothing, medical/dental
•  Food/water
•  Safe place to sleep 

Developing Language To Extend to Action:

Instead of: I’m sorry they don’t have any food, we should donate some.

Try: Food is important, let’s share some by donating to the food bank or buying a gift card to a grocery store.

Instead of: This family doesn’t have clothes so I’m going to donate some.

Try: Clothing is something we all need everyday, let’s see if we can share some, let’s find out what they might need and sizes.

Instead of: It is really sad to be living in poverty or not have enough money

Try: This holiday we are going to work together as a community to share with a family and fulfill their wish list.

What about Tricky Questions or Comments?

Children might ask uncomfortable or inappropriate questions. This is okay! If you don't have an answer or need some time to think about one, you can always say. That's an interesting question. I'm learning alongside you and need some time to think about this OR I'm learning about this, just like you and need to get some more information. I'll be back to you once I have that.

Disclosure:

This blog post is not sponsored and I have no official affiliations with the publisher, author or illustrator.  The thoughts, ideas and reflections are my personal perspective and ideas.  The lessons are a summary of how I would facilitate this topic with children.  These conversations need to be developed over a period of time, not in a single sitting. * 

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