The following is from Ed Spencer, a nonprofit director from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities
Over the past 50-plus years, I’ve enjoyed pleasurable as well as challenging interactions with a diverse array of people. First as a journalist, then as the founder and president of a financial services firm, then as a Christian pastor and church planter, and now, as the director of a nonprofit organization. The precepts and strategies of Bridges Out of Poverty have helped me gain insight into the “why” of human behaviors.
As an interviewer and reporter, then as a salesman and organization builder, then as a preacher and counselor, and now as a presenter, the Bridges Out of Poverty platform helped me sidestep many of the pitfalls of presenting challenging information. The material unfolds organically, making it easier to digest the information. The workshop cultivates awareness and understanding, which are the pillars for building relationships. Authentic relationships, called bridging social capital, lead to personal and community transformation.
The workshop addresses racism and culturalism obliquely, sidestepping the toxicity into which these conversations can sometimes devolve. Instead, differences are examined through the lens of the economic environment that one has experienced. I now understand how a person’s relative sense of security can negatively affect his or her judgement of, and sensitivity toward, another human being or groups of other people.
“I know what I know so completely that I might actually be wrong.” That bit of confessional feedback is from someone who attended a Bridges Out of Poverty workshop and then became a champion in the community on behalf of the platform. Bridges Out of Poverty educates and equips individuals, helping them gain competence to engage with others confidently, especially those different from themselves. Ultimately, it is an empowering tool for community development.
Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World
Crossing any bridge is easier if you know what to expect on the other side. Getting onto a bridge that can take you from poverty to prosperity may be something you look forward to, but if you don’t know how to navigate life on the other side, you can be scared into retreat. That bridge you hoped to cross can literally be a bridge too far.
Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World is an excellent educational and participatory work group for individuals as, together, they learn and bond and build toward a successful journey over that bridge. The scope of their journey includes knowledge of efficient time management, knowledge of the debt-to-income ratio, the power of the spoken word in its’ different registers, how to use the hidden rules that govern behavior and acceptance in differing people environments, an assessment of personal and community strengths, and how to develop strong characteristics that foster better relationships.
Participants, called investigators, then create a personal mental model of how to go about achieving competence, then confidence, in successfully crossing that bridge out of poverty. Just as important as the self-knowledge members of the work group develop are the relationships they form with each other.
Facilitating Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World investigators has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I have witnessed individuals transform toxic mindsets, abandon abusive relationships, and leave behind self-limiting thoughts. They quite literally unleash their innate creativity, venture into entrepreneurship, and add value to the economic landscape of their communities while building up their families’ resiliency and future prospects.
What Every Church Member Should Know about Poverty
Identity and belonging are learned traits. The environment around you can dictate your perception of what the wider world is like. If your world consists only of the people you know, the things you see around you, and the behaviors and habits of those people, how much of the world do you really know about?
In this book, Ruby Payne and Bill Ehlig reveal how limited a church member’s perceptions can be and, more importantly, how limiting those perceptions can be. It has been said that “knowledge is power,” but when knowledge is limited, it can counteract the unlimited power of God, who does not want anyone to be lost.
Often, a church member may feel the unction (urging of the Spirit) to become involved in helping others, especially those who are clearly needy; but an elemental human trait, fear, holds that person back. A weekly Bible study that incorporates What Every Church Member Should Know about Poverty can dispel much of that fear and replace it with confidence born of competence.
A book study can open eyes and minds and hearts, which can lead to open Bibles. A sermon series built on What Every Church Member Should Know about Poverty can inform, challenge, comfort, and inspire members of the body of Christ to engage and grow.
Ed Spencer, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is a communicator and pastor. When he served in pastoral ministry in urban and rural churches, he was introduced to Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities. He used the various iterations of the Bridges educational platform to launch a church in an area of the country known for generational poverty.
