Poverty in Berkshires Front, Center at MCLA Forum

More than 140 people converged on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Church Street Center on Friday to study all aspects of poverty in the Berkshires.

The all-morning Community Conversation on Poverty event was capped off by some remarks from U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, who noted that the Trump administration is doing its best to hamstring efforts to alleviate the worst impacts of poverty, such as hunger and homelessness.

On hand were panelists to coordinate breakout group sessions to talk about specific aspects of poverty, define the problem, and discuss barriers, gaps in services and possible solutions.

After each panelist addressed the group as a whole to bring some basic definition and status of each problem, the audience split into eight groups to discuss each poverty-driven issue. Those issues were jobs, adult education, hunger and food insecurity, transportation, housing, child care, financial literacy and opioid addiction.

After the group sessions, each of the panelists gave their report to the reconvened crowd.

Read all the details at  Berkshire Eagle.com