Burlington Building Bridges offers an 18-week workshop, where groups ranging from 10-20 people meet every Tuesday for 2.5 hours. We use the “Bridges Out of Poverty” Getting Ahead national curriculum through Aha! Processes for families and individuals struggling in poverty.

Together, participants break down the barriers to poverty by strengthening the 11 key resources for a sustainable life. These 11 resources are: financial, emotional, language, mental & cognitive, social capital & connections, physical, spiritual, motivation, integrity, relationships, and knowledge of hidden rules.

We believe that the Getting Ahead workshop is empowering and a strong foundation in helping families make plan their next steps in life. It’s important to us to help remove any barriers that may prevent participants from attending the class each week, so we provide childcare, a dinner meal, and transportation.

One focus in helping the participant includes the entire family (parents, children, spouse). We work with agencies, businesses, health providers, education systems, law enforcement, churches, and individuals collaborating to help our families build the resources they need. One example is utilizing local providers for mental health resources, helping our participants strengthen mental health, building coping skills for stress, learn social-emotional skills and self-care, establish healthy boundaries, and discover help for childhood trauma.