Present: Rick Amico (Communtiy Hospice), Maria Geizer (Home Instead), Rene Birnbaum (self-employed), Denise DiNoto (Consumer Directed Choices), Rebecca Zohn (Concepts of Independent Choices), Donna Rudzinski (Van Schoonhoven Square), Mary Rickard (Saratoga OFA), Kathy Bonville (Home Health care Partners), Ann Quinn (Home Health Care Partners), Holly Pajack (Redesign in Mind), Reed Lehan (Saratoga County Adult Services), Amy Hughes (Saratoga County Veterans Peer to Peer), Rita McCormick (Temple Baptist Church), Cindy Harrington (Shelters of Saratoga), JoAnn Zales (National Grid), Karen Laing (Your Health Advocate).
Introduction:
Cindy Harrington welcomed all attendees and announced that the next meeting will be held on Tuesday December 10th at the Malta Community Center. Holly Pajak of Redesign in Mind will be presenting on de-cluttering and hoarding issues in seniors.
Attendees introduced themselves.
Today’s Topic and Presenters:
Bridges out of Poverty – Andy Gilpin, Director of Program Services and Mary Duclos, Volunteer Coordinator, CAPTAIN Youth and Family Services
Bridges out of Poverty is a national program based on the book of the same name. The purpose of the program is to give perspective and understanding of the poverty and help providers step outside their view and lens of the world to create impactful interventions to lift people out of poverty and the cycle that can perpetuate it. Main themes include the concept that for individuals in poverty, we as service providers must understand their hidden rules and teach them rules that will make them successful in the community, at work and at school (schools and businesses operate from middle class norms and use those hidden rules. We have to teach people these rules if they don’t know them). Another theme focuses on bringing community agencies together so they are working together, rather than in their own separate “bubble”, making it easier for people to access services as a whole. Financial literacy is also an important concept that typically is not learned within families in poverty, and needs to be taught to people being assisted in this program.
CAPTAIN staff has been trained in the program and has partnered with a local faith congregation as well to carry out these themes within the community they serve. Staff holds a monthly family development meeting to review cases, talk about issues and also review section of the actual book together, to further their training.
For more information on the Bridges out of Poverty program or any of the CAPTAIN programs and services, please call 518-383-4680.
Respectfully Submitted,
Maria Geizer
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