美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Somebody's On My Side': 3 Men Who Escaped Poverty Help Others Find A Way Out

 

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

NPR's Pam Fessler has reported on efforts to fight poverty in the U.S. for over a decade. Along the way, she's seen how sometimes a single person can have the most impact. On a recent trip to Albany, N.Y., she met three men who grew up in poverty and are now trying to help others get out. She has this reporter's notebook.

PAM FESSLER, BYLINE¹: Paul Collins-Hackett sits in Albany's Youth Opportunity Office trying to guide a teenage boy through the ins and outs of getting a job.

PAUL COLLINS-HACKETT: If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, you might as well not show up.

FESSLER: He's like a big brother - encouraging, but direct. When the young man tells Collins-Hackett that he wants the job to help his mother...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So I can help her pay bills and stuff so that we're not getting kicked out of houses all the times and moving around a lot.

FESSLER: ...Collins-Hackett leans in even closer.

COLLINS-HACKETT: I completely respect that struggle. My father passed away when I was 3. And my mother's blind. So I've always been super poor and having to help out with bills and stuff like that. So the fact that you have all those people that you're helping² and you're just rising to the occasion, good brother. However I can help, let me know, please.

FESSLER: And so it goes in Albany's poorest neighborhoods, where a recent study found that teens face some of the toughest conditions in the country - crime, inadequate³ housing, missing parents. Several people who grew up in similar circumstances are now working with the city and nonprofits to help these kids survive and hopefully thrive.

JONATHAN JONES: I've been a part of every government program you can think of.

FESSLER: Collins-Hackett's boss Jonathan Jones credits his single mother's persistence⁴ for getting him where he is today. The city's commissioner⁵ of Recreation, Youth and Workforce⁶ Services, Jones says she pushed him to take advantage of every academic opportunity. Now on the wall of the office that Jones runs is a mural painted by one of the teens he mentored⁷, a 17-year-old gang member.

JONES: Yeah. This is him walking off the steps in order to become me or a person in a suit.

FESSLER: The mural shows a young man - his pants hanging below his bottom - leaving behind a gun, a knife and a needle and heading up towards a man with his arm extended.

JONES: And this is the things that he sees as success.

FESSLER: There are pictures of a house, a car, a diploma and symbols for peace of mind.

So where is he now?

JONES: Nobody knows.

FESSLER: Doesn't that bother him, I ask.

JONES: No, because I know I had an impact. He won't forget this.

FESSLER: Jones says you have to do what you can and hope for the best. Research shows that there are many factors that can help break the cycle of poverty - good schools, access to health care, safer neighborhoods. But there's no magic bullet. Sometimes, it's a combination of things or an encounter with the right person or experience.

JUSTIN GADDY: I was really deep into violence. You know, that was my thing.

FESSLER: Justin Gaddy has an office a few blocks from Jones'. He had very little supervision⁸ growing up and got so deep into gangs and guns that in his late teens, he was convicted on federal racketeering charges. He faced the possibility of life in prison.

GADDY: When I actually got sentenced, I didn't get the time I was supposed to get.

FESSLER: Instead, he got only six years.

GADDY: That made me think, like, damn, somebody's on my side.

FESSLER: Just the lucky break he needed to start thinking about turning his life around. Now, years later, he's an outreach worker trying to stop other teens from falling into gang life. Like Collins-Hackett and Jones, Gaddy thinks it's crucial that the kids he deals with recognize that he knows exactly what they're up against.

GADDY: Like, I went through the same thing. I said, look at me now. I would have never thought I'd be where I'm at right now. And I got here by taking this route. And I'm like, and this is how we can help you.

FESSLER: Which, in his case, is redirecting them from the streets into sports, jobs and other activities. All three of these men know they can't help everyone, but they realize from their own experiences that those they do reach might someday succeed and inspire somebody else. Pam Fessler, NPR News, Albany, N.Y.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

4 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。

5 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

6 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

7 mentored   

v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They had a fantastic dean who really mentored a lot of people. 那儿的教务长非常出色，的确为许多人提供了指导。 来自互联网
• The famous professor mentored him during his years in graduate school. 那位著名的教授在他读研究生期间指导他。 来自互联网

8 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。