Board Member Art Sabin studies the teaching resources at the Bridges Out of Poverty Workshop in October, 2011. He and fellow Board Member Marsh Hudson-Knapp attended the dynamic and eye-opening day-long workshop.

We've heard of racism and sexism andother forms of prejudice, but this workshop opened our eyes to the reality of classism where you find someome talking about you, or you are talking about someone else focusing on economic diversity.

We took a fresh look at poverty, and began to see poverty not so much as the extent to which a person does without money, because a person can have money, and without the life resources they need to thrive, end up just as impoverished as before. Poverty, the workshop contends, is "the extent to which an individual does without resources - financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationships, and knnowledge of hidden rules."

We explored the concerns that fill the lives of people in poverty, in the middle class, and the wealthy and we found that many of the same needs concern all groups.

On the other hand, the web of resources and concerns that holds the family in poverty together is very fragile. One problem can throw their whole life system out of balance. For example, a car breakdown can makes it impossible to get to work, their income stops, and the whole net of their life system can come crashing down. The web of middle class concerns is much more resilient, and that of the wealthy is very strong.

People in different classes also function with different motivations. When we are in poverty, relationships are what really matter and we function in a survival mode. In contrast, people in the middle class are motivated by achievement mode, and function in a future planning mode. People in the wealthy class like the middle class focus on future plans, but thier plans center on traditions and connections (who you know).

We explored the different languages people in different classes utilize: frozen, formal, consultative, casual and intimate. Particularly we saw the gap that can be created when people use casual and foraml modes of communication that can separate themselves from each other.

Finally we looked at resources that can empower people to begin and continue the process of moving from one class to another, witht he hope that we can empower people to strengthn and develop new resources to help each person move forward in life.

Our dynamic instructor, Prudence Pease!

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