Poverty is a common denominator for many sectors in society.  Its impact is felt by a wide range of entities, including schools, healthcare providers, social services, food services, faith communities, police and other first responders, courts, correctional facilities, workforce development, employers and government.

Poverty is a complex problem that demands a comprehensive approach. And therein lies the challenge. Poverty is not resolved with a single program or even set of programs, because there so many variables. Bridges is not a program. It is a set of constructs that can be applied in many settings and in many ways. 

The Community Workshops can be tailored to specific timeframes ranging from one to six hours.  The sessions contain case studies, simple exercises, testimonials and real solutions.  It will help you and your organization discover why “middle class” solutions to poverty do not produce the results we are looking for and what works!  The training sessions will change the way you view poverty forever and provide you with tools and strategies to implement within your organization. 

Sessions Include:

Bridges Out of Poverty: Individual Lens 

This workshop is a comprehensive approach to understanding poverty. Bridges Out of Poverty uses the lens of economic class and provides concrete tools and strategies for a community to alleviate poverty. Participants will review poverty research and analyze poverty through the prism of the hidden rules of class, resources, family structure, and language. Throughout the workshop, participants will receive specific strategies for improving outcomes, but the focus of the workshop is to provide a broad overview of concepts. This training assists employers, community organizations, social service agencies, and individuals gain insight and strategies.


Bridges Out of Poverty: Institutional Lens 

This workshop is an in-depth extension of the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop and builds strategies to break down poverty’s barriers and embed new constructs.

This session introduces change strategies for program designs, policies, and procedures. The session is designed to take the constructs introduced in the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop and help participants begin embedding them at the institutional level.

Participants will learn more about:

  • How to apply the Bridges lens within the institutions in which we work
  • How to develop a client life cycle from the client/customer point of view to reveal areas where our institutions create barriers to change and positive client outcomes
  • Identifying and analyzing our institutional theory of change
  • Reviewing and practicing effective stages of change and motivational skills
  • Using hidden rules and language constructs in practice
  • Identifying which areas of the poverty research continuum their institution addresses
  • Barriers to collaboration among organizations
  • Ranking the strengths and resources of their organizations
  • Analyzing their organizations: Is your organization a bridges organization?

 

Workplace Stability Workshop Understanding the Complexities of Your Economically Diverse Workforce
There is no question that increased worker stability boosts productivity, retention, and morale, which leads to greater profitability—but it may yet be a challenge you need to address. Why would an employer want to increase the personal and professional stability of workers? And how exactly can businesses go about it? Many of your low-wage, entry level employees live in daily instability which can lead to absenteeism, health problems, and violations of workplace expectations, all of which decreases morale, attention to work, and job performance. 
In this one-hour workshop you’ll learn to:
 - Recognize the range of factors that create instability for employees
 - See how instability, employee performance and profitability are related
 - Understand how economic class makes employees who they are
 - Identify techniques and tactics for increasing workplace stability
 - How the Getting Ahead in the Workplace curriculum helps employees in daily instability

 For a printable version of the Community Workshops, click here. 

About the Trainer
Mary Cacioppi, Executive Director at One Body Collaboratives has earned the Bridges Out of Poverty Trainer Certification.  Mary’s certification included in-depth work on the Bridges Out of Poverty and Applying Bridges Concepts strategies and constructs. Additional certifications that Mary has achieved include: Certified Facilitator of the Getting Ahead, Getting Ahead in the Workplace and R Rules curriculums. 

Additionally, Mary has become a National Consultant with the aha! Process. In this role she provides organizations and communities with customized consulting to help design strategies to meet community improvement goals around reducing poverty. You can view her Consultant Profile here. 

Testimonial
"The Board and Staff of Family Counseling Services learned so much by participating in the training sessions.  Understanding the Complexities of Poverty provided us with a new perspective and understanding how to implement the Bridges Out of Poverty strategies in our own work has caused us to think differently about the way we interact with our clients in poverty."    Dawn Reints, Board President

Book Your Training
Book your Bridges Community Workshop today, by contacting Mary Cacioppi by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..