Community-wide effort to eliminate poverty by tackling financial self-sufficiency, child care, housing, employment and transportation continues into second year.

Allegany County’s Bridges to Opportunity initiative enters its second year with a goal of eliminating poverty through increased resources and improved opportunities for community members.

The initiative is a collaborative and community-wide effort that tackles poverty from multiple angles.

As reported in The Cumberland Times-News:

Czapski is also chairman of the Chamber’s resource building committee, one of five subcommittees created to analyze the components of poverty. Each committee identifies barriers experienced by low-income individuals and works to implement solutions aimed at alleviating those barriers.

The committee identified five resources needed to combat poverty — financial self-sufficiency, child care, housing, employment and transportation.

“If you did not have your car what would you do? If you had a job at Rocky Gap and it snowed a couple inches and the buses shut down, how are you going to get to work? With any job there’s an attendance policy and you need to get there on time,” said Czapski.

Poverty impacts a community in many ways. Czapski would like to help from a business standpoint.

For more information read the full article in The Cumberland Times-News.