Psychological Impacts of Poverty

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When your home is in disrepair and you know the food you eat is poison, when your school is well known for its poor status and your clothes come second hand, it can lead to a belief that this is equal to your value. People who exist in poverty begin to lose hope that something better exists because, when surrounded by poverty, it becomes the only truth they know.

The people around us have a massive influence on who we can become. Sometimes we learn from their mistakes, sometimes we idolize their rebelliousness.  Sometimes our friends encourage us down a path we didn't plan on, and we don't have the courage to stay steady. This is even more so the case for people trying to climb out of poverty. Those who can't see the brighter future for themselves will dim the light in yours.

When you walk down your street, can you feel that anyone cares? In blighted communities, the disregard for the neighborhood by those who should maintain it can lead to a sense of abandonment and being forgotten. You begin to feel as though you are no better than the shattered windows and overgrown lawns, the boarded doors. Like them, you have been abandoned and left to rot.