New anti-poverty program spans five counties
Oct. 21—DALLAS TWP. — A sweeping new effort to pull families out of poverty covers five counties and involves more than two dozen organizations. One of them, Misericordia University, hosted a media event Thursday to unveil the breadth and multi-generational goals of "Parent Pathways of Northeastern Pennsylvania. "
The program may seem succinctly summed up in one blurb from a media kits handed out: "Parent Pathways of Northeastern Pennsylvania guides parents out of poverty through access to higher education and family-sustaining professional careers."
But as representatives from several involved organizations made clear, the new push to break the cycle of poverty for many low-income parents with children is anything but simple.
Gretchen Hunt from The Commission on Economic Opportunity, an "anchor partner" in the program, pointed out that it isn't enough for parents to have jobs, even if they pay reasonably well. With children, economic success may require "reliable child care," and "strong connections to the community." She cited Misericordia's Ruth Matthews Bourger Women With Children program, which gives single moms a chance to live for free while pursuing a college degree, as one example of how to make big changes in a family's chances to escape poverty.
Noting that Women With Children provides extensive support in connecting mothers with available social services, and in persistently encouraging them to work through problems, Hunt said it "incorporates all the elements of success."
Women With Children Director Katherine Pohlidal called the Parent Pathway program a "new holistic approach" designed to connect existing local programs that help low-income parents with opportunities to advance their education. It begins with parents filling out a one-page "Pathfinder Form" that, in turn "identifies what parents would like to do."
The broad number of organizations involved — covering Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming, Wayne and Susquehanna counties — work to make sure there is a "warm hand off" as one agency may direct parents to another in pursuing the identified goals, Pohlidal said.
The program was devised with help from The Institute, a collaboration among 13 higher education institutions, with support from CEO and The Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City poverty fighting organization. To be eligible, participants must reside in one of the five counties and have an income no higher than 250% of federal poverty guidelines for the head of the household and their dependent children.
Other partners include Unite Pennsylvania, a coordinated care network of health and social service agencies that use a shared technology platform to allow electronic referrals and sharing of information; Persistence Plus,a service providing students with messages designed to motivate lasting behavior, something Pohlidal likened to how the Women With Children "nudges" students toward success; and RESULTS, a group of volunteers trained to advocate for changes in government policy or funding that can have the biggest impact on reducing poverty.
Women With Children program graduate Asia Thomspon Olieman, who is now an attorney, is a senior associate involved with Results and spoke at Thursday's event. "Our goal is to find people struggling in poverty and to empower them," she said.
At the end of the event, Pohlidal invited Parent Pathways of Northeastern Pennsylvania's network partners to the stage in Misericordia's Lemmond Theater, assembling 24 people —all but one of them women — for a group photo.
For more information, visit parentpathwaysofnepa.org.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish
