LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A new year often means new resolutions of what people want to accomplish or improve. For some, the hardest part is getting started. Others have difficulty keeping up momentum.
“You start out the first couple of days and you're very excited, and then you start to get discouraged or you have some setbacks,” said Tina Bryson, director of communications for Christian Appalachian Project.
“Many times we get asked the question, ‘How can people break the chains of intergenerational poverty?’”
It’s a big question, and the answer to escaping the poverty trap looks different for everybody.
“If I had this GED, if I had a new job, if I had a new place to live, how could that transform my life?” Bryson asked.
Carolyn Lindsey is the director of human services for the CAP Cumberland region. Helping people achieve their goals is a big deal to her as well.
“We have so many of our participants and people in our communities that are just wanting to do better, trying to change their lives and, and setting goals, but they don't know where to turn,” Lindsey said.
A new component of the CAP Family Advocacy program is Steppingstones, which aims to help walk alongside people going down those paths to help them figure out which steps to take next.
“This program was designed to first help people identify what are their long-term goals and then how to create a plan for those small steps in between that gets you from point A to point B,” Bryson said.
That involves CAP caseworkers providing tools and assists, moving step-by-step towards a goal. Steppingstones helped one participant overcome the fear of leaving the house, with the goal of helping her find a new home by Christmas.
“What the caseworker was able to do is first, you just get her comfortable with just coming out onto the porch,” Bryson explained. “Where she was comfortable, now you might just take a few steps down the road on the street that she lived onto where she got comfortable. Then it's like getting her comfortable to get in the car and drive to the end of her block.”
By Christmas morning, the individual was in a new apartment, Bryson said.
In its pilot stages so far, Steppingstones has had 27 people enrolled, and 11 have already graduated out of the program.
“We always want to be an organization that gives a hand up and not just a handout,” said Lindsey. “We want to make sure that we're giving them the tools they need to be successful.”
The new Steppingstones component is currently available in two counties, Rockcastle and Jackson. Christian Appalachian Project hopes to solidify Steppingstones before expanding it into further counties.
