Article in The Post-Standard
Poverty program expands in CNY
In a year, Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative has trained more than 2,000

The local Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative has trained more than 2,000 people in the community and expanded to Cayuga and Oswego counties in one year.

The project aims to become a regional collaboration, Margery Connor, the program director, told a crowd at the Thursday Morning Roundtable discussion.

The initiative, based on the book "Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities," seeks to help people understand how to work across economic classes to achieve success and break the poverty cycle.

"Our shared understanding could truly impact every one of the good projects that’s already going on in Syracuse and could go a long way to producing better results in future endeavors," Connor said.

Connor, Angela M. Douglas, a Bridges-certified trainer and project manager, and Maritza Alvarado, a pediatrician and Bridges-certified trainer, spoke about the initiative and encouraged community members to get trained.

"One of the things we’ve learned in the last year and a half is that the more of us exposed to the Bridges concept, the better the outcomes are when we work across economic classes, and having read the book goes a long way," Connor said.

The area’s first introduction to Bridges was during a sold-out conference hosted by Contact Community Services in November 2005.

Two more sold-out conferences have been held since then, a 25-member advisory committee has been organized and 20 people from 13 local agencies have attended a conference in Oklahoma City to become Bridges trainers, Connor said.

The idea behind Bridges is to learn and understand the differences in economic class and to avoid making judgments about the choices people make, organizers said.

It’s not always about access to resources or programs, Douglas said. It’s also about relationships, she said.

"For folks living in poverty, relationship is central and it becomes the base for the way we make decisions living in generational poverty," Douglas said.

Alvarado spoke about how Bridges can apply to the health field.

In health care, the key is to develop strong relationships between doctors and patients, Alvarado said. Institutions need to work with clients on a level they can understand, she said.

Some solutions to help people in poverty bridge the gap are to keep health clinics open later in the day, by a couple of hours, to accommodate working parents; to have a caseworker in clinics; and to create community-based health centers in schools.

"Some of these initiatives are already in place, but we still need to work together as individuals, communities and institutions in order for people in poverty to successfully leave that poverty," Alvarado said.

Friday, April 27, 2007
By BoNhia Lee
www.syracuse.com

Read an overview of the Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative