Two dozen people representing local agencies and organizations participated in a poverty workshop sponsored by Mathews County Against Poverty and held last Wednesday at Kingston Parish House in Mathews.

Facilitated by Bernadette La Casse and Ron Lambert of the Mathews Community Foundation, the workshop came up with a number of creative and innovative ideas to address the goals included in the newly-written MCAP mission statement, said Lambert in a press release. Those goals are to reduce the number of homes in Mathews without running water or proper septic systems and to address the issues of inadequate housing and homelessness in the county.

The coalition decided that pursuing the critical work it has undertaken would require that key issues be addressed in order of priority, beginning with affordable housing, said Lambert. Also listed, in order of priority, were child care, running water/septic, transportation, and life skills.

There are a number of specific ideas under eac...