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Thursday, August 27, 2009
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Allies in fight against poverty
Staff Writer An adult mentorship program designed to help people help themselves out of poverty is now being launched in the Brainerd lakes area.
And mentors, called "allies," are needed to form meaningful connections with participants of Circles of Support, co-sponsored by Bridges of Hope, the Crow Wing County Coalition to End Poverty and Tri-County Community Action, or TCC.
Natasha Leyk, an AmeriCorps Vista worker at Bridges of Hope, is coordinating the development of the program. She is hosting three upcoming informational sessions from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through
Sept. 15 in the Upper Room at First Lutheran Church in Brainerd so community members can find out more about the program, which has been successful in Grand Rapids and Duluth.
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Kassie Heisserer (left), associate director of Bridges of Hope, and Natasha Leyk, AmeriCorps Vista worker, discussed the Circles of Support program that is being developed to help people move out of poverty. Community volunteers are needed to serve as allies for participants, helping support them through this process. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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The program pairs one or two participants, those who have a willingness and desire to leave poverty, with two or three allies, members of the community, usually in the middle class, who provide support to the participants as they make their journey out of poverty. A facilitator assists by providing structure to the program.
Circles of Support is made up of many circles, both large and small. The largest circle includes everyone involved in the program; there also are circles for just allies and just for participants. The smallest circle would be one participant partnered with two or three individually matched allies.
If you go
Circles of Support, a new program developing in the Brainerd lakes area, will connect families experiencing poverty to allies in the community. Organizers are looking for volunteers willing to share their time, talents and support with program participants.
Two or three allies are matched with a participant to form a circle. The goal is to help the participant move out of poverty.
To learn more about becoming an ally, informational sessions are planned from noon to 1 p.m. Sept. 1, Sept. 8 and Sept. 15 in the Upper Room at First Lutheran Church, 424 S. Eighth St., Brainerd.
Bring your lunch and learn more about Circles.
For more information, contact Natasha Leyk at 825-7682 or vista@bridgesofhopemn.org.
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Allies commit to being part of Circles of Support for 18 months. The average time commitment is six to seven hours per month, which includes a mix of the large Circle meetings, allies' meetings and individual Circle meetings. Often a friendship grows out of a Circle and may last long after the program ends.
Allies help the participant in three goal areas: Academic planning, income and budgeting and friends and meaning. Allies who assist with academic planning help participants through school and job-related activities, those who assist with income and budgeting help them find ways to increase their income and decrease expenses while friends and meaning allies assist in building healthy relationships and being part of the community. Participants will be referred to the program by one of the three sponsoring agencies.
"We're looking for people to become committed to a relationship, to become a friend," said Leyk. "We're really hoping this becomes very successful within the Brainerd community."
Leyk said she and other organizers would like to get Circles of Support up and running by November. The first information session was Tuesday for prospective allies and four people showed. Leyk showed a video created by the Grand Rapids Circles of Support group where participants told personal stories of how the program transformed their lives.
Kassie Heisserer, associate director for Bridges of Hope, said Bridges of Hope had been interested in launching a mentorship program for those in poverty and found Circles of Support to be a good model but didn't feel Bridges was able to launch it alone. When the Crow Wing County Coalition to End Poverty started its social capital task force, the concept of starting this program, with partnerships between the three agencies and TCC acting as the fiscal agent using federal stimulus funds, emerged from there.
"It's great for our area," said Rep. John Ward, DFL-Brainerd, who attended Tuesday's session. "If you even start with one (participant) - that's how we grow - and it blossoms from there. It seems like a powerful program."
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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