Notes from the Road: Family Self Sufficiency

I had the opportunity to visit with Stride today. Located just north of Alameda and Sheridan in Lakewood, Stride has been helping families (90% are single parent) achieve economic self sufficiency for 16 years. They take the long term approach to helping a family move from poverty ($18,000 per year for a family of four) to financial independence. Stride assigns caseworkers to a family for three years to help them permanently exit from the poverty cycle. The Stride program provides some initial money for removing emergency finanical needs but then focuses on providing the family with someplace to go (transitional housing) and connections to services, education and jobs, etc. What impresses me is their very high success rate (500 families served with 70% staying out of poverty). The three year commitment is what they feel it takes for a family to become self sufficient. The leverage can be huge as the grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren are all effected in a positive way and for the long term! Visit www.stride-co.org to see how you can help a proud family get on its feet again. As many of you realize, there is a very fine line (much finer than we often think) between the "haves" and "have nots". It doesn't take much (a medical condition leading to huge bills, a lost job, divorce, etc.) to land someone in a difficult predicament financially.

- Jesse