Bridges Out of Poverty/Getting Ahead

Foodshare is pleased to be partnering with Chrysalis Center, the University of Connecticut, and the Junior League to extend our program at Freshplace in a new direction, which has two parts.

The Bridges Out of Poverty seminar provides community members with mental models for understanding economic class and key lessons in working with individuals from poverty. Topics include increasing awareness of the differences in economic cultures and how those differences affect opportunities for success. This seminar is based on the book Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities, a collaboration between Ruby K. Payne, Phillip DeVol, and Terie Dreussi Smith. This seminar is designed for businesses, community organizations, law enforcement, counselors, health care and social service providers.

“Getting Ahead” is a workshop for people in poverty that teaches how to use the hidden rules of class to build up financial, emotional, social, and other resources. Understanding the social rules of the middle class and wealth, and choosing to use them, can open doors to new relationships, new jobs, and higher resources. Working in a group with a facilitator, people who use this workbook will develop a series of mental models to examine their own lives and create new goals for improved futures. In 18 sessions over 9 weeks, the participants (who are called “investigators”) explore the impact that poverty has had on them, investigate economic realities, complete a self assessment of their own resources, make plans to build those resources, and develop a mental model of community prosperity. “Getting Ahead” does not provide answers to the investigators on how to establish economic stability nor does it make the argument for change. Instead, motivation, insight, and plans come from the investigators themselves. Upon completing “Getting Ahead”, investigators will have a self-developed plan and the motivation to achieve it.

In order to support Getting Ahead graduates in their journey to build resources and create their future story, we are recruiting people who can serve as Allies. The role of an Ally is to listen, support the goals set by the graduate, build relationships, provide networking and social capital opportunities, and meet regularly with the graduate. Allies should make a 6 month commitment to meet about twice per month with a graduate, and to participate in monthly conference calls with other Allies and a larger Steering Committee.

Allies serve an important role in helping to create a “bridge” for people who have attended the Getting Ahead workshops and are building resources to improve their lives. In order to support Getting Ahead graduates, middle and upper income volunteers, "Allies," are matched with a graduate who is ready to get out of poverty. The Allies provide coaching, networking and support to help families achieve their self-sufficiency goals. The premise of Bridges out of Poverty is that people in poverty are problem-solvers. Therefore, the role of an Ally is not to solve or fix problems for graduates, but rather to support the graduates in determining strategies for helping themselves and to build relationships of mutual respect. 

Getting Ahead graduates have participated in 18 workshop sessions to investigate:

·         their strengths and deficits in terms of 11 resources

·         how they spend their time

·         their concrete goals for getting ahead

·         key relationships in their lives and whether they are helping or hurting their growth

Graduates have drafted concrete plans for building resources, and have begun to take steps to work on these goals. One of the first activities for Allies should be to review the workbook with the graduate and to learn about their goals for their future story.

Time Commitment for Allies:

1.    Meet twice per month with Getting Ahead graduates in a public place such as the library.

2.    Participate in a monthly conference call with an Ally Steering Committee to discuss problems, successes, suggestions.

3.    Make a 6 month commitment to serve as an Ally. Relationships take time to build, and it is important to build trust over time.

The first meeting will be a social “meet and greet” to get to know one another and to match Allies with graduates. This will take place on a Wednesday afternoon at the Albany Avenue library in Hartford.  Once matched, Allies and graduates will meet every other Wednesday at the library.  This will allow for graduates to have peer support from each other (bonding social capital) as well as support from their Allies (bridging social capital).  Once a relationship is developed, Allies and graduates can discuss alternative times and places (still in a public setting) to suit their schedules. 

The role of the Ally is to support the graduate. It is NOT to serve as their financial or emotional savior.  Boundaries are important to maintain safety, and to set realistic expectations from the onset. All meetings will be held in public settings and never in one’s home or in private.