The Cost of Poverty Experience/COPE is designed to help participants begin to understand what it might be like to live as a typical low-income family in the U.S. It is a three-hour simulation and debriefing that provides a brief glimpse into what it feels like to walk for a month in the shoes of families trying their best to just survive with incomes between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level. C.O.P.E. is an invaluable experience for people who, instead of merely talking about poverty as a problem, choose to be part of the solution to end poverty. This training is appropriate for middle school age and older individuals.

COPE has been offered in Central Florida for the past 4 years to over 1500 cross-sector community leaders from law enforcement, higher education, public schools, non-profit organizations, and faith communities.

Please join us for our next COPE:

Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Time: 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Location: St. Luke’s UMC, Founders Hall

Or Scan the QR code below:

 

Be a part of the solution to reducing poverty in our community!

If you have already gone through COPE, sign up to be a community resource volunteer.

 

Poverty Solutions Group is licensed to offer COPE throughout the state of Florida.

Contact: cope@povertysolutionsgroup.org or visit povertysolutionsgroup.org for more information, testimonials, and application form.

How does racism function at a policy level to create wealth gaps where poverty, hunger and homelessness can thrive?

The Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation is an interactive tool which helps participants learn how federal policies created structural inequalities, and how these policies increase hunger and poverty in communities of color.

The Racial Wealth Gap Simulation will be offered as part of a 3 week workshop for Advocacy. Sign up for Voices for Change

Online Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

October 5 – Racial Wealth Gap

October 12 – Intro on Offering of Letters

October 19 – Child Tax Credit Presentation and Offering of Letters

Co-facilitated by Mariam Mengistie, St. Luke’s Executive Director of Missions and Florence French Fagan, Senior Florida Organizer with Bread for the World.

If you have any questions, please contact serve@st.lukes.org.

 

 

This 4-hour virtual Bridges out of Poverty experience (including breaks) will cover mental models of social class, registers of language, the eleven critical resources to thrive, and help participants consider organizational changes that would help individuals and families break the cycle of generational poverty. Participants will become equipped to engage in long-term collaborative initiatives like the Circles Campaign.

Upcoming Date: TBA

Time: TBA

Led by nationally certified facilitators through aha! Process, Inc. (www.ahaprocess.com)

Want to learn how to better serve people in your life? Dignity Serves teaches a powerful new paradigm of service called ‘dignified interdependence.’ Taught from a Christian perspective, this 6 lesson study will give you a useful toolkit to apply in all areas of your life – home, office, church, and neighborhood. Want to experience less guilt and frustration trying to help people? This training is for you. It has helped thousands of people since it first hit the scene in 2008.  Led by Phil Hissom.

The percentage of children who live in poverty in the United States hasn’t changed in over a generation which means what churches, non-profit groups, and the government are doing to alleviate poverty is not working. This class is designed to help participants RETHINK assumptions we have about poverty and “the poor” so that we can RESET our understanding about the causes of poverty, and then RE-ENGAGE in the way we serve and set expectations for sustainable change.

Participants will cover the “hidden rules” of class (poverty, middle, and wealthy) and help people from all walks of life to better understand and communicate with people from a diversity of backgrounds based on the work of Ruby Payne. Participants will also gain a better understanding of our community transformation vision, how St. Luke’s understands mission from a United Methodist perspective, what the Bible says about poverty, and asset-based development.

This class will meet the requirement for Circles Allies, Family Advocates and others interested in serving in relationship-oriented mission ministries.

Participants will gain a better understanding of our community transformation vision, how St. Luke’s understands mission from a United Methodist perspective, what the Bible says about poverty, and asset-based development.  This course provides a safe environment in which to explore how you understand diversity and serving with people from very different backgrounds. 

Explore ways to balance charity or relief work with initiatives that are relational and measure long-term impact.  Participants will discuss how to move beyond charity and benevolence toward a balance of missions that includes betterment and development. The workshop will discuss mission from a United Methodist and Wesleyan perspective, what the Bible says about poverty, and asset-based development. This course provides a safe environment in which to explore how to understand diversity, the personal filter one takes into the field when serving, and serving with people from very different backgrounds.

Several times a year, we offer a six weeks study of this book. The book is helpful for learning how to serve others in ways that are not harmful, but rather maintain the dignity, independence, and hope of recipients. It provides insight into how to be aware of and check our intentions for undertaking acts of charity. It also provides insight into the complexities of poverty.

Bob Lupton, the author, has more than 30 years of community transformation experience in Atlanta. He wrote this book with the hope of offering tools and inspiration for the development of healthy, community driven programs that produce deep, measurable, and lasting change – transformative charity that produces community development.                                                                                                                               

CQ is the capability to function effectively in a variety of cultural contexts—including national, ethnic, organizational, generational, and many other cultures. Enhance the multicultural understanding and effectiveness of your ministry with this only evidence-based assessment of Cultural Intelligence (CQ). This is for anyone wanting to participate in a global ministry team or serving locally in a cross-cultural setting.

Upcoming Event Date: TBA