Getting Ahead in a just Getting by World

Getting Ahead in a Just Getting by World is a curriculum that engages people in poverty in groups of 10 or 12 with a facilitator, they investigate together the impact poverty has had on them, their families and their community. 

We discuss how people of different classes perceive and approach life, we call it the hidden rules of class.  Hidden rules touch every aspect of our lives even the most basic parts of our lives, from how we deal with time and money, to how we dress and speak, to how we approach food. It’s important to discuss hidden rules because the world, business, schools, churches and banks operate in the middle class.  If you don’t know how to function in the social arena in which you find yourself you will not have a positive experience.   

We also investigate what kinds of resources a person needs to achieve a stable life; resources such as mental, support systems, education, physical, spiritual, emotional, relationships/role models, financial and knowledge of hidden rules. 

This curriculum is not a quick shot gun approach but a 16 to 20 week process. By the end the graduate will have evaluated their personal situation, assessed their resources and developed a self directed plan to achieve economic stability, they will have complete ownership and responsibility for their success.  Our first Getting Ahead class target date is August 28 of this year.

The final piece to this puzzle is matching up the Getting Ahead graduates with middle and upper class mentors who will encourage and support the graduate throughout their efforts to achieve economic stability.  Moving from poverty to middle class will be a long and difficult journey, there is a much better chance for success with a mentor to encourage, support and guide them. This part of the process is so very important because who among us have ever achieved without the help and support of others. 

The thing I most love about this curriculum is that not only the graduate’s life is forever changed but also the future generations of the graduate, hopefully ending poverty.