A healthy, growing, vibrant, and inclusive economic landscape in Memphis is of paramount importance to the quality of life for all citizens of this community. The ability of people to find quality employment and to earn a decent wage to support their families or to start their own businesses offers a pathway to financial self-sufficiency.

Challenges abound to achieve such a worthy environment for all. In the midst of much economic success in the Memphis region, many of our citizens are left far behind.The church should consider the development of strategies to move all toward a new measure of financial success.Indeed, significant obstacles remain against true economic stability for many who call Memphis home:

As in other major urban areas in our nation, 59% of children born live in poverty in our city and only 62.1% of high school seniors graduated in 2009.1 People are simply unemployable because they lack the basic skills for almost any employment, such as reading and elementary math. According to a national study, every high school dropout contributes about $60,000 less in taxes over a lifetime to the community’s economic base.

Overall unemployment exceeds 10%, compared to the national average of 9.6%.2 A much deeper problem exists as reflected in the unemployment levels of African American males, estimated to be in excess of 20%. (In areas defined by the Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action (CBANA) as distressed, the African-American male unemployment rate is estimated at 30%+). As Memphis keeps pace with and even exceeds national unemployment statistics, the U.S. Department of Education expects the literacy gap in America to widen, producing a shortage of 12 million qualified workers in the next decade.