Bridges to Prosperity Northern Illinois expresses our thanks to the City of Rockford for its partnership in hosting Getting Ahead Classes for their Community Action Agency and Head Start Clients. 

We’d like to give a special thanks to Facilitators Te’Airia Robinson, Mary Trotter, Rebecaa Ellis and Avery Johnson who guided the participants through ten weeks of classes. We are incredibly proud of the Getting Ahead graduates, who achieved remarkable results including increased resources and life stability and by creating their own plans for self-sufficiency. We are also grateful to Mayor McNamara for being a part of the graduation ceremony hosted at City Hall.

Getting Ahead participants learn that financial resources are just one area of resource in everyone’s life. They complete an extensive assessment of their resources in key areas and learn how to leverage areas where they are lower in resource with areas where they are higher.  The participants also learn about tools and strategies to increase life stability, and they write their own plan for self-sufficiency.

The seven graduates achieved the following outcomes:

14% indicated an increase in income,
33% had a decrease in debt,
57% noted an increase in education
29% noted a decrease in the need for state or federal benefits

Additional outcomes include: 100% made progress on the goal areas they set at the beginning of the classes and also identified additional tools or resources to support them in reaching their goals. What we feel is a true testament to the classes is that 100% of the participants would recommend the class to others. 

We asked the graduates what they have done differently as a result of the class, they responded:  I am considering different resources, focusing on my goals, creating new social connections and controlling who I let in my life, planning ahead, making better decisions, and becoming self-motivated.

The charts below indicate the areas of Resource and Stability that the graduates indicated increases in over 10 weeks of classes.