Golis: Deciding to make an impact

“We do know what to do. We should just do it.”

- David Grusky, director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.

As a society, we know the probabilities. Children with access to health care, good nutrition, safe neighborhoods, quality preschool, counseling services and a college education will do better than kids who don’t have these advantages.

One of the myths of poverty is that the issue is too complicated, said David Grusky, the sociologist who manages the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.

“The causes are not complicated,” he told a Santa Rosa audience, “the consequences are complicated.”

Grusky said society needs to “de-commodify childhood” - that is, it needs to make sure that opportunity belongs to everyone, not just those who can afford to pay for it.

Grusky was the keynote speaker for the Oct. 2 conference on the state of the Latino community in Sonoma County. A sold-out crowd of more than 400 people packed a local banquet room for the half-day event.

Surveying the crowd, I was reminded of a much smaller gathering a few years ago - an informal lunch with a small group of Latino leaders. We sat around a table at a local restaurant and talked about the future.

For journalists, such conversations come with the understanding that some well-meaning efforts gain momentum, and others run out of gas, falling to inertia and the vagaries of politics.

At this meeting, I remember thinking: These guys are serious about making an impact.

These guys, it turns out, were the nucleus for what would become Los Cien, the group that brought these 400 community leaders together.

Both of the area’s congressmen were there. So were a state legislator and four of the five county supervisors. The keynote speaker was Grusky, the director of one of three national poverty centers. For business, government and nonprofit leaders in Sonoma County, this was the place to be on this morning.

By dint of their dedication and hard work, the members of Los Cien made this happen.

So, yes, they were serious. From a handful of people, Los Cien has grown to more than 300.

They are motivated by the simple fact that too many Latinos live in poverty, too few stay in school and too few have equal access to the advantages that lead to jobs that pay a good wage and promote healthy neighborhoods.

It’s not wrong to view this as a gathering of people inspired by a selfless concern for the well-being of others.

But there’s more to the story. In simple terms, efforts to integrate Latinos into the economic, political and social life of Sonoma County will soon become a matter of self-interest for all of us.

More than 40 percent of the school students in Sonoma County and more than 50 percent of the kindergarteners are Latino. They are our future workforce. Their success will influence the well-being of everyone who lives here.

Need a lawyer in 20 years? A doctor or nurse? A technician to repair your electric car? Want to hire skilled employees for your business? Want high-wage earners who pay taxes to support local services?

You’ll need people with skills derived from education and training. To get there, these students will require the same advantages as other students.

Sometimes it’s surprising how few elected officials - and candidates, too - talk about changing demographics and the profound implications for the future.

Still, the county government initiatives operating under the umbrella of Upstream Investments (upstreaminvestments.org) and Healthy Sonoma (healthysonoma.org) are providing a blueprint.

To paraphrase professor Grusky, we know what to do. We just need to do it.

Good intentions don’t always lead to good outcomes. Ongoing public and political support will be essential, providing the money and guidance necessary to sustain these investments.

If we’re serious about jobs that pay a living wage, we’ll also need to engage in a more robust conversation about economic development.

And we’ll need a coherent approach to governance and the goodwill necessary to pull people from their silos.

Can government resist the inclination to talk these issues to death, confusing process with outcomes? Can 40 school districts agree that this is too important to let parochialism get in the way? Ultimately, can all kinds of public and private agencies find a common understanding about how to proceed and how to measure success?

It’s good news that dozens of agencies and organizations have endorsed upstream initiatives, but their endorsements remind us that this is a puzzle with lots of moving parts.

If we can identify ways to support these efforts, we would be smart to do so. We can have a healthy and prosperous community, or a community of haves and have-nots. It’s our choice.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com