Kentucky residents are overcoming barriers, improving incomes – and working on improving financial and other outcomes – through New Directions' I Rise, the nonprofit's take on a national self-help program geared toward helping residents break the cycle of poverty and move out of subsidized housing. Bridgette Johnson, chief operating officer for New Directions, says the organization is the first group outside of a government agency to launch such a program in Kentucky, focusing on participants with Section 8 housing vouchers.
That includes Nicole Lee, who has been living in a New Directions apartment for 10 years. Lee joined the program last year for two reasons: The promise of a new tablet to connect to the Internet, and the promise of working on her finances. "I wanted to work on my budget, find a job and work on my credit," says Lee. "So far, we have worked on all three."
An I Rise grant helped pay off some of her debt, which helped her start fresh and improve her credit. The program also connected her with an internship as a stone mason at Cave Hill Cemetery, which led to more work. That means a more stable future for Lee and her two children. "When you have people in your corner to motivate and push you, you want to do more and do better," she says. "And better does come."
Johnson says the program, which has 200 participants, has elevated New Directions' mission. "We're not only housing our residents, but creating a path for them to go into homeownership or market-rate housing."
A new lens
The NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence Program helped Johnson focus on I Rise and find ways to improve it. "Through Achieving Excellence, I was able to look at it through a new lens," she says of the leadership initiative. "My focus was to figure out how to change not only housing, but to help residents break the cycle of poverty in helping them remove barriers so the need for affordable housing isn't there." Affordable homes fulfill a need, Johnson explains. "But it shouldn't be a stopping point; it should be a path."
Christina Deady, NeighborWorks America's senior director of Leadership and Workforce Development, says the NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence Program, in collaboration with Harvard University, helps organizational leaders look at their work in a new way. "Then, by focusing more on the results and outcomes of their work, they help ‘move the needle' even further on important goals such as reducing poverty, strengthening youth, building wealth, and improving health. That is the work that helps each organization better serve their communities and improve the nonprofit sector overall."
Achieving Excellence helped Johnson develop a plan for gathering data and creating "funding buckets"
Achieving Excellence also helped Johnson establish some ways to document their success via surveys, where they assess clients' mental and physical health and track their goals. In one of the first cohorts, 94% of the participants saw an improvement in healthy assessments.
Johnson says it's been exciting to watch people start to dream bigger, adding things like "owning my own home" and "starting my own business" to their goals. "I Rise is about creating hope," she says. "They're realizing ‘I can.' They're realizing what's possible." Meanwhile, Achieving Excellence helps leaders realize what's possible in their organizations.
The next round of Achieving Excellence begins soon, and will accept approximately 50 senior leaders from community-serving organizations. The program incorporates one-on-one executive coaching, structured peer support, and a cutting edge curriculum developed in conjunction with Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, all focused on helping participants address a major, self-identified organizational challenge. NeighborWorks America is accepting applications until Sept. 16.
