Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Social scientists will inform us that escaping Salisbury’s soaring poverty (28% according to the U.S. Census bureau) is mission impossible due to several factors:
• When cities succumbs to a poverty rate of 19% to 21%, such cities are very unlikely to recover for decades. (Save for cities achieving this rate in the Great Depression in the 30′s)
• High poverty rates impact both crime and public educational ratings. Where high poverty exists, crime is certain to rise. As a rule, public education test scores suffer in areas weighed down by poverty. Poverty often brings illiteracy and low achievement.
• Where crime, poor public education, and poverty take root, urban flight takes place. The middle and upper classes do not remain in undesirable areas with safety issues, drugs and gangs in schools, the lowering of property values, and the rise of taxes to support growing entitlements and safety needs.
• Where high crime, major poverty, and poor education exists, business are less likely to set up shop or even remain. No jobs compounds poverty and makes folks leave for greener pastures.
Adding to the above facts of life, in an urban area succumbing to major poverty, are these failed approaches:
• Impacting Salisbury’s ability to climb out of poverty is that certain groups have conspired to maintain a wall of silence about Salisbury’s collapse into poverty. This conspiracy of denial has not helped our city–its harmed it and likely hastened the city’s demise. A responsibility for Salisbury’s silence is shared by local media, Salisbury’s special interests, local government, a few real estate agencies desiring to move property, and persons who do not question the false reality promoted by their local government, the area media, and their friends living in our closed-information society. We now are reaping the benefits of silence and denial. Silence and denial doesn’t work in families and it doesn’t work in Salisbury. Our citizens need to recognize the challenge of poverty, forget the silence, and join together to find workable solutions and trade offs or the tide of persons and families moving out will continue to rise.
• Salisbury’s local government has artificially impacted its extremely high poverty rate of 28%. This artificial impact was witnessed in the forcible annexation of the Rowan County’s “High Rise” prison and poor neighborhoods for the sake of gaining Federal grants. Forcible annexation, to gain Federal grant money, is a double whammy. These poor neighborhoods raise our poverty rates and the Federal Grant money builds buildings that make Salisbury a magnet for the poor. In turn our rising poverty rates chase away potential businesses and jobs. De-annexation of the forcibly annexed High-Rise Prison and poor neighborhoods offers a wise first step.
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The Multi-Solutions Generator for Business and Government
The Multi-Solutions Generator, based on solutions-oriented approaches, was developed back in 1992 to work with emotional and behavioral challenges. This particular streamlined version was reengineered for business and governmental applications.
Multi-Solutions Generator (MSG) goals focus on:
• What humanly can be accomplished
• The present
• Concrete and observable change
• Allowances for errors and learning
• Changes in viewpoint and action creating desirable outcomes
MSG focuses on solutions rather than problems. The MSG recognizes most groups and individuals possess abilities and strengths required to remake perspectives and to take solutions generating action. Present and future oriented, the MSG avoids talk of the past. Viewpoints, formed from a past perspective, tend to give strong life and power to present challenges. With the MSG, explanations and history are regarded as creations after the fact. Numerous explanations may fit the facts well and may hold equal truth, yet searching them out slows the solutions process and saddles it with excess baggage. Seemingly no one correct way of verbally constructing realities exists. The MSG avoids all beliefs not worthwhile to the desired change. The MSG focuses on observable physical actions. If problems are mentioned, they are described in the past tense. Solutions are represented in the present and future.
The MSG demonstrates we do not need to know a difficulty’s cause in order to find its solution. Insight is an unrequired factor in the change process. No theory or hypothesis in needed for challenge resolution.
The MSG utilizes whatever groups or individuals bring to the question and answer session. This form of inquiry evokes resources, solutions, strengths and brings them to attack a problematic situation. The MSG employs language making a future solution appear probable and realistic. This probability and realism makes the solution more likely to occur because the approach nurtures a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
In overcoming problems, the MSG either erases the problem completely or makes the problem appear manageable by reducing its strength and size. Frequently difficulties are undercut by demonstrating they only occur at certain times or in changeable situations. Often problematic behavior is relabeled, has its direction altered, or is linked to an extremely difficult task to create resistance to further performance. Difficulties are generally found in: (1) Frequency of certain happenings. (2) A situations labels and meanings. (3) Sequence of actions. (4) The direct or indirect involvement of certain groups or individuals. (5) Specific physical locations. (6) Factors in the environment. (Crime, economics, employment etc.) (7) The degree the problem is outside an individual’s or group’s control . (8) Focus of blame. (9) Extremely negative predictions.
Difficulties are often kept alive by either seeing no solution or believing the only alternative is another problem. The MSG avoids the trap of repeating ineffective solutions. The MSG gets us to look at how reality might appear without a particular problem. Here small changes are seen to affect the larger picture. The MSG focuses us on altering actions in problematic situations and in trading fixed negative labels for everyday positive descriptions. The main tools of the MSG are questions, clarifications, action assignments, and relabeling.
Multi-Solutions Generator Questions:
Are you seeking a solution?
These questions will assist you in rapidly formulating a clear direction for your solution. Jot down your answers so you can review them or clarify them further
–Why are you using the MSG?
–Are there clues leading you to believe a challenge actually exists?
–Is there something you desire more of? If so, specify what is it? Something tangible? Something you or other persons are doing? Something happening in your environment? Something else?
–Is there something you want to maintain? If so, specify what is it? Something tangible? From you? From someone else? From the environment? From a group?
–Is there something you want less of? If so, specify what is it? Something tangible? From you? From someone else? From the environment? From a group?
After reviewing the 5 previous questions, jot down what the challenge was. Be clear and specific in jotting down the details to describe what the challenge was. Example: Our city has extraordinary poverty and its affecting our crime, education, and ability to attract business.
• What positive new label will you give this challenge? (A failure was relabeled a valuable learning experience)
• What specifically took place during the (Your new label)? Then what happened? And then what happened?
• Who was present during the (New label)? What did each person say or do? Then what happened? And then what happened?
• Where did the (new label) most frequently occur?
• Was there a particular time of day, month, or year when the (new label) was most likely to happen?
• How was this (new label) a challenge for you?
• If a close friend, associate, or boss was present now, what would he or she say about the way you went about solving this (new label)?
• You just snapped your fingers and blinked. Suddenly a change occurred and your (new label) was solved. How would you know the (new label) was solved? What would be different?
• When you have a solution, what would you be doing? How would you feel? What would you be saying to others?
• Right after you found a solution, what would life be like? What would you see? Hear? Feel? Smell? Taste?
• Immediately after the solution arrives, what challenge would you overcome next? Or would you rather relax and take it easy for awhile?
• Describe your (new label) free times.
• What happens when you don’t experience your (new label)?
• What is different about the times you are getting what you want?
• What are you and others, involved in the (new label) doing differently during the (new label) free time?
• In describing the (new label) free times, on what do you focus?
• In describing the (new label) free times, what do you ignore?
• What is different about those times when the (new label) is manageable?
• When do these (new label) free times happen?
• Would you rather have a complete solution today or a few days or weeks from now?
• (If the (new label) is not yet solved) Before the next session would you rather observe all the (new Label) free times and make a note of your observations or would you rather do something differently during the time when the (new label) most often occurs?
Auxiliary MSG questions to be added if continued problem solving is required:
• Did you notice something different occurring since the last session? Would you desire those changes to continue happening?
• Have you arrived at a better new label for your former challenge?
• What will you call your situation 2 years after you’ve solved it?
• Did your (new label’s) frequency of occurrence make it a challenge? How can you best increase or decrease the frequency?
• Where did the (new label) happen? Could you change the (new label’s) location? Where would the (new label) no longer be a challenge?
• To what degree was the (new label) out of your control? Can you exercise more control over it? In what ways?
• Who was involved in the situation? Were they involved directly or indirectly? Can you have them become more involved or less involved?
• Was there an environmental factor (economics, employment etc.) that might have been involved in this situation? How can these environmental factors be altered? Are there ways to compensate for these environmental factors?
• At this moment what has worked? At this moment what might work?
• Do the challenge-free times appear to happen without a pattern or reason? If so, can you describe the randomness of your problem-free times?
The Rowan Free Press Plan to Lift Salisbury, N.C. Out of Poverty (Part I):
