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Speaker 1:	The Missouri State Journal, a weekly program keeping you in touch with Missouri State University.

Nicki Donnelson:	The Drew Lewis Foundation was formed in the memory of Amy Blansit's late husband. Before his passing, Blansit and Lewis had purchased a property, The Fairbanks, and it now houses programming offered by the Drew Lewis Foundation, standing as a beacon to help connect the impoverished surrounding neighborhood with the resources and education to make the residents more self-sufficient and help get them out of poverty. I'm Nicki Donnelson. Blansit, who teaches health and wellness promotion courses at Missouri State University, is my guest today on The Missouri State Journal. She tells us about how the foundation makes a difference. 

Amy Blansit:	What we're looking at is not only just the people who walk in the doors, how do we provide them with services and resources that Springfield has for them, but also how do we help keep them in that neighborhood so that the change stays in the neighborhood. Outcomes that we look at, some of them are simple, like credit score. 650 is our goal with these families that we work with. Some of them aren't quite so tangible, like accountability. Do they show up every Thursday? But all of us know about presentism, to where I can be present, but I'm not getting the lesson. It's really looking at the family dynamic. It's looking at the neighborhood, that socioeconomic model of from the interpersonal all the way to the community level that we're really looking at outcomes.

Nicki Donnelson:  Blansit explains that the foundation makes a commitment to the families, and it can be a life altering experience.

Amy Blansit:	We get to know our families very intensely and we work with a small group at a time. Instead of having 100 people that we're serving, we intensely serve 10-15 families every new cohort, which is about 3-4 months. We've only been able to do that because the community has become so involved in what we do. In one month, we had 1,200 hours of volunteers from students especially. We have a great relationship with Missouri State and Drury and Evangel students, but also from businesses. We really look at, again, this very specific, very intense way to create stability in a home, and then it's amazing to watch what begins to happen when those needs are met the way a family can begin to grow together as a family and see hope and take the next step.
	We've changed employment, got families that are moving out of poverty. That doesn't mean that one trip and hiccup isn't going to cause a backslide, so we're in it for the long run. We ask a family to commit to us for 18 months, and we are committing to them for 2-5 years if they'll have us. Springfield's at a pivotal point, and it's been amazing to see the number of people that have come forward to help change our Springfield.

Nicki Donnelson:	The Northwest Project is a community-wide effort led by the foundation to strengthen the pivotal asset proven to bolster chances of poverty alleviation. It involves Missouri State, Drury University, and funding from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. The project targets Northwest Springfield due to the astonishing poverty rate. Blansit elaborates.

Amy Blansit:	A lot of conversation has been about how Springfield is programs rich and systems poor. What we really do is look at who in the community is already providing the resource that is meeting and filling a gap for families and we bring that expert in. That's what has been so great about orchestrating all the resources that are there. It reduces the limitations of transportation. We provide childcare while the education's going on. Those partnerships are everything from CPO and OCAC to MSU. We look at what maybe sometimes the emergency need is. We find out who's solving that problem. We bring them to our families, and then as a community, we support to make sure that we follow through with what it is the family needs.

Nicki Donnelson:	In her classes, Blansit talks to her students about the disparities between what helpful advice you might offer a family and what is actually feasible due to their budget. It all comes down to understanding some of what is taken for granted based on personal experience. "Banking is just another example," she added.

Amy Blansit:	When I was 12 years old, I got a babysitting job and a little savings account was started. I didn't have a fear of a bank and I understood the banking system. For many of our families, they've never had a bank account. They definitely did not have a relationship with a banker. A lot of times, they get blamed for being a specific way. Many of us don't think about the fact that they've never been taught and then some people, "Well, I mean, the information's there. Go obtain it." Fine, let me give you a physics test and you haven't had physics in 20 years and you need to make an A in order to be successful at this topic.
	We work a lot on what are the things maybe they haven't learned that the rest of us took for granted in middle and upper class, make sure we fill in those pieces while we're building that stability in the home.

Nicki Donnelson:	That was Amy Blansit of the Kinesiology Department at Missouri State University. I'm Nicki Donnelson for The Missouri State Journal.

Speaker 1:	For more information, contact the office of University Communications at (417)836-6397.