The Salvation Army Against Poverty Sociology Essay

The Salvation Army is an organization that provides services to people all over the world. The Salvation Army exists to share the love of Jesus Christ, meet human needs, and be a transforming influence in the communities of our world (Salvation Army Canada 2010). These services included emergency response for people affected by disasters. The Army organization was started by a husband and wife team by the names of William and Catherine Booth in England, back in 1865.Though is it known for charitable the Army supports organizations such as community and family services, camps, youth services, homeless and addiction services etc. The Salvation is interconnected when it comes to helping people from all over the globe. In many the Army is here to fight social problems. Poverty is a problems that exists through three of analysis which are the Micro level for the Salvation Army in a community, Mid level for our cities and Provinces and Canada in general and on the Macro level for Haiti an in comparison to the entire world .This essay will explain the three levels and how it all shares a common demeanour on poverty but on a different scale depending on where you live in the world especially when it comes to standard of living around the world.

Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom (The World Bank Group 2010).Society is filled with many problems that exist and the Salvation Army is there to limit some of these problems by the support it gives through its organizations. These problems are small at times but its impact affects people who depend on the services. The Army does a lot of good in communities from a micro level.

Though every city has its problems the Salvation Army on the micro level provides services for the communities in ways such as shelters for the homeless during the winter time. The Army provides food banks for those unfortunate to provide a quality meal for their families. At times it’s hard to make ends meet and the Salvation Army is there to lend a helping hand and to make sure that people who are less fortunate benefits from their services. Poverty is major issue that we face throughout the world but to have an impact on changing our communities we need to come up solution that will bring down poverty which is on the rise in our communities. In many ways the services the Army provides is helping in the reduction of social problems that our communities face. We see poverty on every corner of Toronto, most noticeable the homelessness on our streets is a major problem. Services such the Salvation Army is needed because it shows the lack of support in our government not doing enough to help combat the social problems we face on the micro level. In order to make a change we must start of in our community and then evolve from the there. Poverty is taking its toll on society and in our communities; it affects most notably our Aboriginal communities. The lack of government support and community engagement is mostly what is keeping us from conquering poverty in our neighbourhoods. We must all take part in lending support to those in need of it. The Army is a services that is at the forefront in leading the way to solving this problem. If everyone takes an initiative to do a small part in contributing to volunteering, charitable donations and what not poverty can be eliminated from our cities. Because to progress into helping others we must fix the problems we face in our neighbourhoods and our communities in order for us to progress forward.

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Poverty is a reality in Canada today. Despite having one of the highest standards of living among all the developed nations, and despite being voted numerous times in recent years by the United Nations as the best country in the world in which to live, experts agree that poverty is prevalent in Canada today(Streets Level Consulting 2010). On the Mid level the reason for poverty in our major cities is that there is not enough government involvement in preventing people for poverty. A good example is in our Native communities where you find people living in abstract poverty. On many First Nations reserves in Canada, people are deal with problems that challenges there sources to a much more prosperous community. High rates of infant mortality, substandard housing, few social services, and low life expectancy create conditions closer to those found in third world countries. This is sad in the sense that with all the resources and opportunities Canada has to offer still our government is failing to provide the proper source of living for some of its citizens. Poverty is also a major problem in the sense that without proper resources and funding to help our poor communities it creates a wave of crime in most part of our cities in Canada. This is prevalent in our urban minority areas, which has an increase in violence and drug abuse. Toronto as we all know is the backbone for Canada’s economy, it is the city that brings in most revenue to our country, but yet with all that money the government is unable to clean up the crime and poverty that surrounds the city. We as nation and our government need to take charge and bring a solution to this problem. The more awareness and attention that we bring to this problem will ultimately have a great influence and impact in cleaning up poverty in our major cities. There are more food banks than McDonalds restaurants in our provinces and cities but yet 1 in 5 children live in poverty in Canada (Canada`s Women Health Network 2010).The gap in wealth between rich and poor is growing dramatically in Canada. To live in poverty in Canada is to be at much greater risk of poor health, violence and a shorter lifespan.

Poverty is a global disaster. This is a proven fact on a Macro level when you take in perspective all the problems that are facing third world countries. A good example of a country that is struggling with poverty is Haiti. A look at Haiti can help us understand poverty because most people in the world live in relative poverty. Haiti today is habitually classified as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Approximately 80% of Haiti’s population lives in extreme poverty and the average living per day for a person is one dollar (Haitisurf 2010). Most Haitians live in rural areas or very small, often remote, villages. They live without access to electricity or even clean water. Over half the adult population is illiterate due mostly to the lack of access to education and books and the need for children to work from very young ages.  Those who live in the cities fair no better. In fact, 65% of Haitian children will never finish elementary school and 80% won’t ever attend high school (Free Articles 2010).

Learning about the poverty situation in Haiti helps us in understanding poverty, since most of the world has a big problem concerning this topic. Employment in Haiti is limited and without a job people are unable to earn income and support their families. The catastrophic earthquake damaged most of the country and farm lands, which makes things now even more difficult for crops to grow. People were suffering before the earthquake and now matters have worsened. Infrastructures are all broken down making it very difficult to house and shelter people. This is problematic because it is essentially is not just a Haitian problem but the worlds. Poverty affects nearly three quarters of the world and it’s about time world leaders and government officials get on the issue. There are too many resources in this world that can feed and take care of everyone, if leaders are willing to implement solutions and ideas to help combat it. Haiti should be an example to the entire world that poverty is a major problem that needs to be solved. People should not have to suffer to get the basic necessities in life whether you live in Afghanistan or London, overall it should be a right not a privilege.

Poverty is not just a poor person’s problem but societies, because if a community or a place is suffering it affects all the people that live there. There needs to be more done to prevent and help solve this problem. Even with social programs such as welfare and housing it is not enough to help citizens in our cities. This is because people are force to live on a small income that is not enough to support their families, but also the minimum wage in our country is not enough for people to raise families on. This is been an issue for many years and now with the recent recession that hit the economy the standard of living has decrease because people are not getting employment and overall the cost of living has increased. So this is very difficult for people to survive when the cost of living is up and no employment to support people to bring home income. This overall comes back to the lack of support from our government which needs to do more in fighting for its people when it comes to a social issue as big as poverty. The majority of the people in the world are struggling with bad living conditions; this is because our society and governments has put the needs, concern, and proper living of its citizens aside for unnecessary agendas that are in no way helping people. The money used to fund unnecessary wars and make missiles can help feed and educate people. If the world can contain this problem, everyone living in it can have a better tomorrow and a future.