This is a 16 week program that is a part of the Bridges Out of Poverty Framework and is meant to assist community members with learning the hidden rules of poverty, but even more so, to remind us that we have strengths we never knew about. Part of the beauty of the program is that it removes barriers from participating. People who are a part of this group receive a meal for themselves (and their children), childcare, transportation if needed and an incentive payment to acknowledge the value of their participation. There are applications that are reviewed and it is a process to participate. Discipline and a desire for change is a large part of the acceptance process. 

Some of the requirements are being sick and tired of being sick and tired and a willingness to learn through self-discovery.

Some of the things we did as a group:

• Work as a team to describe what poverty is like in the community. As a focus group we really hone in on what our community resources are and what our personal resources are

• Investigate economic class differences

• Learn the causes of poverty as well as How to identify and build resources.

We have learned so much together. This was the inaugural Getting Ahead program, so we didn’t know what to expect, but our facilitators were willing to put new ideas into their lives and our investigators were willing to spend a lot of time really diving deep into their dreams. We spent time toward the end on "future story" boards. These are Vision Boards that allow us to put what we learned about ourselves into a creative project. Studies show that we are much more likely to meet our aspirations when we write them down, or do another form of concrete planning. This tends to "cement" the concepts into our brain better - affording us an increased likelihood of attaining these goals. We looked at our lives now, but more-so what we want our lives to be in the future.

We broke bread together; we shared very personal stories as well as our hopes and dreams. We plan to continue a path together by meeting once a month as a Getting Ahead Group and continue to encourage each other to grow in our own gifting and servitude for the community and our families. Several of our investigators have shown interest in being a leader in the next class as well as other ventures.

We want to thank our Thrive 10:10 Board members, funders and our gifted Facilitators:

Sherry Steiner

Cindy Williams

Cindy Christopher

Meghan DeGregory

Special Thanks to:

Pastor Vicky Kelley and Pastor Don Smith of Girard First UMC

If you would like to support this program or an individual participant, you can do so in the following ways:

Give monthly and label your gift Getting Ahead  

You can give at https://www.thriveneighbors.org/support-us or you can 

mail your gift to Thrive 10:10 22 N. Market St. Girard, Ohio 44420

Sponsor an investigator or a week of programming

Organize a group of friends or community group to prepare or pick up a meal for the week and serve our investigators.