Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World is a book and a 16-session curriculum that helps individuals in poverty build their resources for a more prosperous life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Getting Ahead provides people in poverty with the same information found in Bridges Out of Poverty, which was developed for professionals and others working to end poverty in the community.
The cu
rriculum involves rigorous work done in a safe learning environment with the support of an experienced facilitator and co-facilitator. Participants, called “investigators,” are encouraged to examine their own experience of poverty and explore issues in the community that impact poverty − banking, housing, jobs, transportation − providing critical information the community can use to take action to end poverty.
Program facilitators guide investigators through an assessment of their own resources and how to build those resources as part of their move to self-sufficiency. Getting Ahead puts the concepts, tools, and relationships in the hands of people in poverty to make a difference in their own lives and in the life of their community.
Getting Ahead in a Just Getting by World - Getting Ahead facilitators help under-resourced individuals to take charge of their lives, complete a self-assessment of their own resources and make plans to build them. They develop a series of mental models to examine their own lives and create new future stories, help stabilize their lives, investigate the impact that poverty has had on themselves and their community and uses this information to build resources for a better life and community. 16 weeks for up to 16 participants.