Posts by JOtt:

New to aha! Process? Here’s your vocabulary cheat sheet!

One of the most powerful aspects of the Framework and Bridges concepts is that they provide a common language for talking about poverty and other economic class issues in a community. However, if you are new to Framework and Bridges, some of the vocabulary may be more like a hidden…

Podcast: Mindset, motivation, and the argument for change

I often see Getting Ahead investigators go from feeling like they’re victims of a system they cannot control to believing they can impact change. Too often we use extrinsic motivation to try to get people to make a change, but they intrinsically may not believe they’re capable of that change…

Poverty Is a Context, Not an Excuse

The new school year has arrived and with it the opportunity for me to do a number of presentations to various school districts and other organizations on the subject of dealing with kids from poverty. In my first week of school, I had the privilege of speaking to school bus…

Am I helping or not?

I appreciated KD’s blog and story (August 2) and perspective on enabling, and Marty’s response to the blog on Facebook is also useful.  The whole idea of enabling in poverty reduction is so complex that it warrants ongoing conversation if it is going to be addressed effectively individually or systemically. …