Poverty is expensive, a drain on resources, and a waste of human potential. Simply put, we can't have a sustainable community unless we address poverty. The St. Joseph County Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative (SJC Bridges) takes an innovative framework to break the cycle of poverty and create a community wide approach that seeks solutions to shift from managing poverty to eliminating it. SJC Bridges puts the concepts, tools, and relationships in the hands of people in poverty. Our partner organizations, like St. Margaret's House, Ivy Tech Community College, the YWCA, and Hope Ministries, have graduated more than 400 people from a 15-week workshop called GETTING AHEAD in a Just Gettin' By World (GA). People in poverty investigate the collective story and their individual experience of poverty, making a plan to move to self-sufficiency. At the same time, we train employers, schools, colleges, agencies, churches, individuals and provide avenues to get involved. Together, with our community partners, we have:

• Educated more than 1500 professionals and concerned citizens in the Bridges framework including the first Bridges for Business presentation.
• Graduated more than 400 people in our 45 hour Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin' By World program. More than 80 of those graduates are in college.

One of SJC Bridges' partners, Ivy Tech North Central is the 1st community college in the country to use the Bridges framework to address student retention and success. As a result of the South Bend campus' success, the Ivy Tech state- wide system will be using this approach. Joann Phillips, Chair of Ivy Tech' Community College's Human Services Program, says:

"Bridges has become much more than theory for our students; it is a powerful and practical tool they can immediately put to use in practice ... it serves as the basis for the teaching and learning of all social issues, and reinforcing a value system that is based upon the dignity of all individuals, nonjudgmentalism, and empowerment."

As our allies and graduates learn together, we begin creating a plan for our community. Through SJC Bridges-sponsored activities, like the conversations around the documentary "Unnatural Causes," we educate the larger community about the effects of poverty on all of us. South Bend's Mayor Stephen Luecke says:

"The Bridges program in South Bend has brought together social service agencies, government, institutions and businesses to form partnerships that we had envisioned but never achieved before. Most importantly, individuals from generational poverty are enriching the discussion as we learn from each other."

SJC Bridges designed and implemented three successful programs that create next steps.

The Future Story Project partners with local businesses to employ GA Graduates: the goal is one job for one year. This project is a national model that combines long-term employment supports and coaching for both employees and employers using the Bridges framework. SJC Bridges is working with the Michiana Society of Human Resource Managers to resource both companies and low income workers. For this partnership, Michiana SHRM won the national 2010 SHRM Pinnacle award. Jacqueline Barton, CEO of Specialized Staging Solutions, said,

"Once I attended the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop, I had my "aha moment" and gained valuable insights into why our best efforts were often not enough. We have started changing the way we do business."

At our Monthly Networking Meetings (MNM), community allies meet for dinner with GA grads to network & resource each other. The allies learn about poverty in St Joseph County, and GA graduates receive support and build social capital that helps them move across the bridge to self-sufficiency. At our MNMs, we've resourced more than 150 graduates and leveraged more than 2000 volunteer hours. One graduate's sentiment echoed many others: "Today's meeting was very helpful. I wish we could have more to come to."

In the Financial Management Class we partner with experts to build financial literacy for GA grads. Participants work with 17 mentors from 11 financial institutions and learn how to implement a feasible spending plan, repair credit and avoid financial predators and they gain access to banks and microloans, giving them more financial strategies and choices. After the class, graduates report being more knowledgeable and confident: they begin to save, make and use budgets, pay off debt and build their credit. The success of SJC Bridges to educate, collaborate and advocate is creating a group of citizens - working across sectors, political parties, and economic class -- committed to the long-term sustainability and well-being of our community. Phil DeVol, co-author of Bridges Out of Poverty and author of Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin' By World, says:

"While there are over fifty communities using Bridges and Getting Ahead, St Joseph County Bridges Out of Poverty is one of the 1st communities to apply the concepts and is in the inner circle of the developing Bridges Community of Practice. We look to their practice and lessons as support for other communities. I am particularly impressed with the cross-sector and bipartisan involvement. We are committed to being an active partner in this process and learning together."

SJC Bridges is resourcing organizations in Cass County, Michigan, Elkhart County and others to bring this dynamic approach to their community. We also advise organizations across the country. Poverty costs the whole community. Together with our graduates, we are learning to better understand what it takes in time, resources, motivation, and relationships to become economically self-sufficient, as well as how to support graduates at each stage. Together with the community, we are learning what we need to do to build a stronger and more reliable bridge. We need everyone at the table to solve poverty: business and the faith community, civic groups and individuals in poverty.

We need you too.