Our Eyes Were Opened helps people understand about poverty so they can reach out with wisdom and compassion. Participants in this workshop will consider three definitions of poverty. One is academic, another is based on the federal poverty guidelines, and the third is experiential. The workshop teaches the powerful and insightful concept of funds of knowledge and how that impacts our interaction with people who are different in any way.

Beth Lindsay Templeton, Founder and CEO of Our Eyes Were Opened, Inc. is a public speaker, Presbyterian Church USA minister, and writer. For many years, she was with United Ministries, a non-profit in Greenville, South Carolina, where she worked with both “the have-nots” and “the haves.” Since 2007, she has focused on a ministry with “the haves” so they can enlarge their understanding about people who live in poverty in order to decrease judgment and increase compassion.