Core Community ready to launch next week

Apr. 30—People are signing up for the first class of the Abilene Core Community which is ready to launch in May. This is the second Core Community program in Dickinson County and is patterned after a similar one in Herington.

"Our approach is multi-generational, involves the entire community, and is working," said Deborah Factor, CEO of Youth Core Ministries, of which Core Communities is a part.

In its other sites across Kansas and one in Illinois, Core Community has had 167 people leave financial poverty, a combined increase in income of more than $388,000 monthly, and a debt reduction of more than $1.8 million total. Participants have their education levels, stable living, and credit scores, and decreased debt.

The program is designed to empower people to work their way out of poverty through a series of classes and individualized coaching to assist them in breaking down the barriers which hold them back.

"Maybe the barrier is they need a job; I don't think people realize what all that entails," said Cindy Whittington, Core Community coach. "Maybe they just need a support system, and somebody they can call on a bad day."

There are nearly 20 people signed up and Whittington said they can accept a few more. The typical participant is struggling to make ends meet and needs a little direction and support. There are many moving parts to poverty. It's not as simple as telling them to get a job. Sometimes getting a new job or a promotion gives a person just over the amount for which they qualify for assistance, but it's not enough to take the place of what they will lose.

"It's really just trying to get them to understand that there are way more pros and cons in doing this," she said. "It's hard in that moment, because yes, you do need some assistance, but in the end, you gain so much more."

Part of what Whittington will do is help participants hook up with the resources they need to overcome difficulties.

To understand the root cause of a person's poverty, they have to look below the surface.

"Most people go straight to, 'poor' it is all financial," she said. "Poverty really is just lacking some resources. I try to tell people we are all lacking something. My whole goal is to do life with these people. I explain to them that poverty, middle class, it's all really just a stereotype. We are all one check, one bad decision away from being in poverty."

Unlike other assistance programs, Core Community is not a single resource. The tenant of the program is to pull from many resources that address financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical language, social capital, integrity and trust, relationships and role models, knowledge and middle-class rules, motivation, and persistence — all contributors to poverty.

"As a coach, I'm activating the voices of the voiceless people," Whittington said.

The effort to bring a Core Community to Abilene was started at one of the first CARES Coalition meetings more than a year ago. As members of the community gathered to brainstorm ways individuals and organizations could reach out and help people in Abilene, the success of the Herington Hearts program was spotlighted.

CARES Coalition Coordinator Tom Schwartz said what impressed him and others in the group was that the Core Community wasn't about a one-time help and that ends it.

"It's about getting involved with families long term instead of just trying to help them out through a crisis at that moment and then not giving them support after that," Schwartz said. "This Core Community will allow us to work with them over a longer period of time to be there to support them. And this Core Community of families who will be in this first class that starts on May 6, will also be their own support system."

Phase one of the program is a 24-week class that comes from a curriculum called Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin' By World. Phase two is matching families with community members and building resources.

"Ultimately, we seek to stabilize families and quiet chaos," Factor said. "We do this by creating an environment for people to heal."

As the chaos decreases, families gain hope and begin moving forward and upward. They begin seeing the opportunities before them that previously could not be seen.

To learn more, volunteer, or sign up for the May 6 launch of Core Community contact Whittington at 785-200-5012 or [email protected]; or Crystal Radenberg at 785-280-0388 or [email protected].