CANFIELD — Ursuline Sisters Mission is engaging in a social media campaign calling attention to poverty.

As part of January’s National Poverty in America Month, the campaign offers daily memes with Bible passages, statistics from credible sources and quotes from human rights and religious leaders.

The posts are running across sites for Ursuline Sisters Mission ministries, such as Beatitude House, Ursuline Sisters HIV/AIDS Ministry and the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, which together have more than 100,000 followers online.

Vicki Vicars, director of Mission, Equity and Resilience for Ursuline Sisters Mission, created the campaign and said it’s especially important to raise awareness among Mahoning Valley residents.

“The national poverty rate was around 11.4 percent in 2020. In Youngstown it’s nearly 37.9 percent and has been as high as 49 percent,” she said. “A third of our residents are living at or below poverty level, meaning they have inadequate housing, food, transportation and health care.”

For the other 66 percent, and folks living in the surrounding communities, Vicars said, the poverty rate still matters.

“Poverty lowers the quality of life for the entire community,” she said. “It robs people of their potential, of their ability to contribute their gifts to the community. When everybody can’t do their best and be their best, we all suffer.”

The U.S. government defines poverty in the contiguous United States and District of Columbia as one person making $12,880 per year and a family of four existing on $26,500 per year.

In Youngstown, more than half the children live in poverty.

“Nobody grows up and says they want to be poor,” Vicars said.

To help locally, Vicars said, residents can donate to organizations that address poverty, advocate for job training and become a mentor for a student.

“For decades, ministries of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown have worked to help local families escape poverty and have fullness of life,” Vicars said. “They are working toward that for all God’s people.

“One of the concrete ways that the Sisters and our colleagues in ministry show our love for God is by loving our neighbor,” said Sister Mary McCormick, general superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown. “In this we follow one of the great commandments of the Bible. Helping individuals and families break the cycle of poverty through education and other outreach programs has always been a part of the mission of the Ursuline Sisters.”