Restoring lives: Understanding extreme material and relational poverty

Material and relational poverty are both contributing factors to instability in one’s personal life and the effects of both are far reaching throughout society. Much of what we track and what many of our programs address are issues of material poverty. But if you have worked with those in material poverty, you know many are also experiencing relational poverty. Let’s discuss both.

Material poverty

Material poverty refers to the inability to acquire and afford the basic necessities that make life easier to live. Material poverty doesn’t just include things that we all need like food and shelter, but also things that may seem less necessary to the sustainability of life but are nonetheless essential to function in our society. Things like lack of internet access, transportation or decent clothing greatly hinder one’s ability to attain and retain gainful employment for instance. Extreme material poverty is the inability to acquire any of these basics, often leading to homelessness especially if someone lacks a relational support system.

Relational poverty

While the thought of material poverty conjures images of those who are struggling to get by with the basics of food, shelter and clothing, relational poverty differs in that it can affect anyone at any socio-economic level. The wealthiest among us can suffer from relational poverty if there are no strong communal or familial bonds. Extreme relational poverty is the lack of any community or support system. Some individuals have a history of neglect and trauma, which can lead to distrust as well as misuse or abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, which further exacerbates strained relationships. When a person experiences material and relational poverty in tandem, a relief approach will not bring wholistic and/or long term change.

 Wholistic restoration

The restoration approach is marked by the investment of significant amount of financial and relationship resources over a long period of time. It is the only approach that holds the key to bringing wholistic change to a person living in extreme poverty. There are three restorations principles I believe are necessary to bring about change for the poor: relationship, structure and accountability. Before structure and accountability can be addressed, communal bonds and trust must be built.

Launching Restoration

Combatting these two forms of poverty through wholistic restoration can help those who are struggling to regain some sense of normalcy and begin to rebuild their lives for the better.

In the trenches of restorative ministries, I have come across principles that have worked to restore the lives of people who find themselves in extreme material and relational poverty. If after reading this, you, your church, or your organization should become interested in the implementation of a Restoration Program, we would love to hear from you or you can first purchase Change for the Poor here. It is hopeful that a process will soon be available for training, certification and ongoing support of your own Restoration Program. In the meantime, Victory Mission + Ministry offers one-year apprenticeships to anyone wanting to come work with us and get “on the job training” for leading in a restorative ministry context.

About Mark McKnelly

Mark McKnelly is an author, motivational speaker and wholistic life restoration minister and coach. McKnelly develops and helps other organizations develop and reform programs for men and women reentering society from incarceration or recovering from addiction. He shares a very practical process in his book Change for the Poor to teach others how to help individuals in extreme material and relational poverty restore their own spiritual, relational, personal, vocational and financial lives. His personal journey through addiction and recovery led him to his ministry.