According to the U.S. Census, 45.3 million Americans are currently living in poverty. Poverty has infiltrated intergenerational lines, decreasing opportunities to meet basic needs and diminishing our access to economic stability and healthier lifestyles, with or without advancements in education. Moreover, the effects of poverty are felt disproportionately by minority populations, where 27.2 percent of those in poverty are African-American, 23.5 percent are Hispanic, 10.5 percent are Asian-American and 9.6 percent are white. The National Poverty Center believes the “color of poverty” exists because access to valuable resources is more tangible for whites than minorities, minimizing minority populations’ ability to thrive.

In addition to racial disparities in poverty, there are also 15,769,921 American children living in poverty and 4,145,717 seniors living in poverty. Children who live in poverty are more likely to experience higher crime rates, decreased productivity and higher costs for healthcare throughout their lifetimes. For seniors and people with disabilities who depend on Medicaid, they must be 74 percent below the federal poverty level (FPL) to qualify. Are these percentages great enough to take action now, or should we wait until poverty is as inescapable as the Great Depression? Minimizing poverty is possible when one person desires change and goes on to provoke action in their neighborhood.

Empowerment in the community begins with genuine interest. If neighborhoods, cities and states fought harder for their residents, then Congress would have less work to do when it comes to reducing poverty across the nation. How many neighborhoods are there in a city? How many cities are there in a state? Strength comes from numbers. If many individuals at all levels — neighborhoods, cities and across state borders — demand change into our current system, we could easily achieve the momentum we need to jumpstart reform, instead of continuing to tacitly agree to poverty and to the way poor individuals are treated in our nation.

Every community has commonalities, regardless of demographics and class. We must encourage one another to be forthright about the pains of poverty. In doing so, that pain transforms into self-empowerment, creating new allies and unbelievable bonds, making it impossible to remain silent. Bridging the economic gap among races is also possible if one race can advocate for each other and with others for the same cause.

For example, if we can find one African-American voice per block and per neighborhood, we could exponentially increase awareness of the difficulties faced by minority populations. The same would also be true if we could find one Hispanic voice, one Asian voices, and one white voice per block and neighborhood. If these voices are heard, then we will have put a face to the racial disparity of poverty and address the country’s failing methods of approaching poverty issues with a host of strong voices.

How much more effective will these voices be if they were complemented by many more from every block and neighborhood? The Civil Rights Movement happened because both African-Americans and whites were willing to risk their lives for the humanization of African-Americans. How much more powerful a movement can we create if every race is willing to fight against poverty? Being heard is priceless; doing nothing is simply disgraceful.

Let’s help our nation and Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California cut poverty in half in the next 10 years, through her proposed H.R. 258, the Half in Ten Act. On January 22, 2008, the House of Representatives decided it is in the best interest of Congress that the United States should address the issues of poverty by setting a national goal that will cut poverty in half during the next 10 years. Seven years later, on January 9, 2015, Lee introduced the bill, H.R. 258: Half in Ten Act of 2015.

The goals of H.R. 258 are addressing challenges related to the persistence of poverty across intergenerational lines, inaccessibility of resources to meet basic needs, why policy initiatives for safety net programs remain outdated, why inequitable distribution of housing creates isolation and concentrated poverty and why minority communities are out of balance. If these goals are met, then the bill would wipe out child poverty and extreme poverty, improve the processes of safety net programs and outcomes in poverty, improve measures of poverty by adding more indicators in the cost of living, address inequalities in rising incomes and so on.

In order to show support for this bill and support for those in poverty, contact your local Iowa representatives at Govtrack.us.https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/IA. Do not be afraid to share your personal experiences because you have the power to empower others and make a difference in someone else’s life. Let Lee and other representatives across the nation know that Americans are standing together for poverty reform, so we can make a difference in our neighborhoods and for our nation. The more voices who speak up, the more we can accomplish in less time.