Many people gathered at the Performing Arts Center at Alliance High School on June 8 seeking a common goal: discover the roots of poverty in the region and address it so that the Panhandle can flourish.
Patricia Jones, with the Taskforce on Poverty, said the organization attempted to host the Bridges Out of Poverty session in June of 2020, though it was hindered by the pandemic.
“There are members of the taskforce who had been to it, it has been in the Panhandle before, and they thought it was really a worthwhile program and something we should bring to Alliance,” said Jones. “We got some grants and some partner agency funding, and we brought in a speaker from the aha! Process, which is a company that was founded by Ruby Payne, who is internationally known for her work with people who live in poverty, and for trying to teach agencies how to better work with people who live in poverty to understand where they’re coming from so that you can help lift them out of their situation.”
Jones said about 200 people from throughout the Panhandle registered to attend the session on Tuesday.
“We have several people from different agencies in Scottsbluff and Chadron, along with Alliance,” Jones said. “There are several people from the schools. Several people are here from churches. WNCC has sent several people here, including students who are doing this as part of a program through the college.”
For the people who attended the event, Jones hopes that they will have a clearer understanding of ways to help people living in poverty.
“We essentially have three different classes: people who live in poverty, people who are middle class, and people who are wealthy,” said Jones. “We all operate from the middle class, all of our agencies, our schools, et cetera, but there are totally different rules for people who live in poverty, and they don’t understand where we’re coming from, and we don’t understand where they’re coming from. So, the idea is to learn how to mentor people to teach them the rules of the middle class and how to understand where they’re coming from to start with.”
Enough funding was received to host the complete Bridges Out of Poverty series, which consists of four parts. The second program, will be hosted in Scottsbluff on Oct. 14. The third and fourth programs are set to take place in 2022.
Jones hopes that people throughout the region will see the impacts of poverty in their communities, noting that poverty is present even in Alliance.
“More than half the kids in our public schools receive free or reduced lunch, or qualify based on their family’s income level,” said Jones. “These are the kids who are going to grow up and stay in Alliance. So, if we want to make a difference for the future of this community, make it more sustainable, we have to do more things to lift these kids up and their families so that they see Alliance as being a viable place to have a future.”