I’m excited to share this model that we’re using here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, called “Morning Conversations.” Just to let you know a little bit about who we are, we are a Community Action Agency in Bucks County. We were established as part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in 1965. We have various client service sites across our county, and our funding comes from various sources like the Community Services Block Grant.
The main thing I’d like to share with you today is our strategic priorities and why we started the model of Morning Conversations. I’ve been a licensed social worker but also a Bridges Out of Poverty certified trainer since 2006, and since that time, we have trained more than 1,700 people in Bucks County on Bridges.
Everyone who participated said that Bridges was a great training, and they were glad that they participated, but we began to question, “Are people really using the concepts and strategies in their daily work?”
When we looked at the triple lens, my questions was, “How are they impacting folks living in economic instability at the individual level?” And then we felt once we got the individual level down, we could begin to change institutions at the institutional level, and then work at the community level.
Our goal was to design a model to engage our community and folks who have had Bridges training and further the dialogue so they could begin to use the strategies and concepts with the people they work with.
Listen to the podcast for more.
