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Leaders Plan Community Summit on
Inequality and Opportunity
in the New Economy, 2006
Leaders from the Pima County Interfaith Council (PCIC) will seek to
initiate a broad based community conversation about growing economic pressures on
poor and middle income families in Metropolitan Tucson at a Community Summit
titled "Inequality and Opportunity in the New Economy." The two day event, to be held on
February 23 and 24, will examine issues of poverty, inequality and opportunity that have
in recent years largely dropped from public view.
Increased indebtedness, costs associated with college access, rising health
care costs, dead-end low-wage jobs, home foreclosures, outsourcing of good jobs,
and lack of infrastructure in many neighborhoods all conspire to inflict private
pain on growing numbers of families, especially families with young children, in
Tucson’s congregations and communities.
Although the November 2006 election was overshadowed by the war in Iraq,
political corruption, and immigration, economic pressures on families simmer
just below the surface in most low and many middle income families. These
pressures and resulting bad outcomes, like crime, drug abuse, depression and
family violence, promote divisions within and between communities, scapegoating
of others and hardened hearts.
PCIC leaders envision the Community Summit as a launch point for engaging
thousands of families in conversation about economic realities and hopes for
the future. Either we pull together or pull apart.
For more information, contact the Pima County Interfaith Council at
520-903-2333 or
pcicsoaz@qwest.net
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