Darcy starts taking classes with the Getting Ahead program

Butler County

United Way

What is the "Getting Ahead" program?

After reading the last newsletter, many might be wondering what the Getting Ahead program is, who it helps, and what it teaches. "Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By-World" is a 15-week workshop with classes meeting once a week for 2 hours. This unique course aims to help people in poverty (particularly those in generational poverty) begin their journey out of poverty and onto a path of self-sufficiency by having them look at all areas and resources of their lives. They will also learn the "hidden rules" of the middle class, as well as self-hindering mindsets. They are taught to think differently about not only poverty, but also about themselves and the choices they make. Once they have assessed their resources across all facets of their lives, they then form an action plan and begin to take immediate steps in order to strengthen weak or insufficient resources.

Additionally, during the course, participants examine the root causes of poverty as a social issue and within themselves, and learn how to examine and begin to put an end to their own self-hindering mindsets. Further, they learn how to honestly examine and build their resources and how to make plans via "SMART" goals so that they can begin their journey out of poverty and begin to write a new future for themselves.

A key element to this program is gaining not only an awareness of the "hidden rules of class" but also the knowledge regarding how to apply these on the job in order to make them more productive members of the workforce. Because the business, education, and social service sectors all work off of middle class standards and norms, giving clients an awareness of these and how to apply them will be a crucial element that is revolutionary among other self-sufficiency programs.

Further, they are monitored via weekly phone or email contact as well as progressive exit and follow-up interviews so they may continue their journey. Additionally, the facilitator is trained fully in both the Bridges Out of Poverty model as well as the facilitation of the course, enhancing the effectiveness of the class.

Darcy Enters the Getting Ahead Program

You learned in the last newsletter that Darcy was struggling to care for her children, especially her youngest with medical complications. She fell into a poverty-sticken world because of a lack child support payments and increasing medical debts.

To help herself and her family get out from underneath accumulated debt, Darcy sold her house and strived to make things work on a low budget. She found out about the Bridges Out of Poverty Coalition's Getting Ahead program through her Community Behavioral Health case manager when she expressed an interested in going back to school to finish her degree. On learning about the program she says:

"I was all for it! Anything that could help me was worth my time, and luckily I was able to make it work [on the] days my children were out of school due to my mom just becoming retired".

She was able to lean on her mother and a guild of therapists as she and her youngest son learned "sign language, learned to walk and many [other] independent steps that people take for granted". Her son still faces challenges with speech and fine motor skills.

She had her mother, but there were still few that she believed she could actively rely on for help or friendship. The Getting Ahead program helped her gain a focus, put her life into perspective, and define her goals. "I found that I had lost myself somewhat in the procession of job sacrifice and living in poverty" she says about the program and how it helped her find the resources she needed to help herself move towards self-sufficiency. "Considering what I've been through in only the last three years I am fairly resilient" she says.

Hear the rest of Darcy's story in the next newsletter.

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