Dr. Ruby Payne
As a former high school teacher and principal, Dr. Ruby Payne understands the unique challenges facing schools and communities around the country. She shifted public conversation to consider the role poverty plays in many facets of American life and decided to teach others what she learned. Since founding aha! Process in 1996, Ruby has educated more than 100,000 professionals on economic class mindsets. She identifies problems, develops practical resources, and equips anyone and everyone who is ready to listen.
“Sometimes you don’t realize that you’re stuck because it has become a way of life…it’s normal! I was afraid to step outside the box, to become unstuck. There were untapped resources within the community that I hadn’t realized before. The Getting Ahead course helped me to realize that I wasn’t stuck and that there was hope for me.”
“Investigations is a valuable tool and the ‘missing piece of the puzzle’ for postsecondary academia. Students will not only assess their lives outside the walls of the classroom, but they will now be able to see how life outside the classroom impacts life inside the classroom. They’ll learn to make plans for themselves using resources available within the college and the community.”
“After I attended an aha! Process workshop in Denver in September, I brought my teacher leadership team to Houston for the Under-Resourced Learners Summit. We found many of the strategies we learned there to be so helpful that we have expanded their use beyond just students who are struggling. We now even use the student resource questions as part of our new-student registration materials, and then we match student needs with the resources that the teachers/advisors can support and deliver.”
Our Blog
What is your calling?
The following is from Roger Howard, a volunteer with Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty. When we were called to address poverty in our community in a brand-new way, we had no idea where all the resources were going to come, from so we prayed, and people prayed for us. I really knew very little about the nonprofit world, but our pastor said, “Hey Roger, did you know that John is on the same mission as you are?” Mr. P had left a successful legal career to found the Omaha Street School, and he was well connected and extremely well thought of in the nonprofit community. John helped get Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty off the ground. So, what curriculum would we use or would we develop on our own? Sharon, who sat next to me in choir, overheard me telling that I wanted to eliminate poverty in our community. She told [...]
Bridging social capital: The story behind the writing of “Bridges Out of Poverty”
In almost every training offered by aha! Process, we talk about the importance of bridging and bonding social capital. Bonding capital is relationships with people who are like you and who you know and hang out with. Bridging capital is relationships with people who are different from you. The importance of bridging social capital is that it connects you to people who are different from you, who have an expertise you might not have, who know other people that you don’t know, and who make connections. The more connections we have, the more opportunity we have for personal stability. This in a large part is how Bridges Out of Poverty came to be. From 1979 to 1999, Phil DeVol was the executive director of a drug and alcohol treatment program. In this role, he spent time talking with other organizations and community partners about the work they provided. One such person [...]
The book is a starting point; the conversations are the work
The following is from Jenna Wilmer, a community development consultant. I’ve read the book A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Dr. Ruby Payne three times—the first time on my own, then twice more as a facilitator (once with staff, and once with community practitioners). The conversations were completely different. This book has sold close to two million copies. It’s widely used in education, social services, and community development. The book is also widely debated. Over the years, Payne has continued to respond to that debate through multiple revised editions, consistently widening her lens from classroom teachers to social workers, city planners, and nonprofit professionals. Here’s what I learned from facilitating it twice. With staff: We examined our own class assumptions and how they show up in program design. People had “aha” moments about barriers we’d unconsciously built and norms we’d either observed or lived alongside clients exiting poverty. The conversation was great, [...]