By Patricia Jones, Alliance Poverty Task Force
BRIDGES: DINNER AND CONVERSATION
Bridges Out of Poverty uses the lens of economic class and provides concrete tools and strategies for a community to alleviate poverty. Are you interested in learning more about Bridges Out of Poverty, but you don't really have the time to attend day-long workshops? Please join us for dinner and a conversation with Bridges Out of Poverty national facilitator Jim Ott on Wednesday evening, June 8, at West Side Events Center, 2472 County Road 62, Alliance.
Social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner served beginning at 6:00 p.m. Dinner will be Pulled Pork, Potato Salad, and Fruit Salad, for $12.00. Conversation with our guest speaker will follow dinner. Jim will give a brief overview of the Bridges programs and highlight how we as community members can work together to address poverty locally. Please register and pay online at panhandlepartnership.com/events for the dinner.
On Thursday, June 9, 2022, the Alliance Poverty Task Force will be hosting the national program Bridges Out of Poverty: Community Lens. People from throughout the Panhandle will be hosted at the Alliance High School Performing Arts Center. The program is open to anyone, but is especially valuable for government officials, service agencies, school personnel, law enforcement, church leaders, businesses, and other community leaders. Registration is at panhandlepartnership.com/events, and the fee is $45.00.
The Bridges out of Poverty work was begun about 25 years ago by Dr. Ruby Payne, a school administrator who wanted to provide tools to educators who were dealing with children living in poverty. These tools were designed to help the teachers understand a survival environment and provide strategies to improve both learning and discipline. Dr. Payne formed a company called aha! Process, which offers a number of programs and books aimed to equip educators and leaders who want to tackle poverty in our schools and communities. Publications and training have expanded beyond education, and the aha! Process offers programs and publications for business, health and healthcare, criminal justice, faith-based efforts, first responders, postsecondary education, trauma-informed care, and workforce development.
Jim Ott has been a national consultant with aha! Process since 2010. He has been a school psychologist with the Mississippi Bend Area Education Service Agency out of Bettendorf, Iowa, since 1984, serving a variety of schools in rural Jackson County, Iowa, for his entire career. Jim is the co-founder of the City of Dubuque’s Circles Initiative, which is applying Bridges Out of Poverty Concepts at the community level through workshops, trainings, and Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World groups. Jim also presents Emotional Poverty workshops.
Bridges programs open our eyes to the challenges of poverty and equip us with the resources to cultivate sustainable success rather than providing more handouts to the poor. We can improve the lives of so many in our area.
Please join Jim Ott and the Alliance Poverty Task Force for one or both of these programs on June 8-9. Understanding poverty and breaking down barriers is an important part of the battle against poverty.