chatham county
Chatham makes strides on lifting residents out of poverty
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This weeks’ question comes from John Moore, who wonders what Chatham County is doing to lift people out of poverty.
As it turns out, he may be answering his own question.
Moore is the executive director of UPLIFT Chatham, an organization which aims to help people move themselves out of poverty. UPLIFT stands for Understanding Poverty: Lifting Individuals and Families Together. For more than five years, the organization pursued an empowerment model, which offered leadership development classes and ongoing support to Chatham residents in poverty. But Moore said when the model wasn’t having the results they hoped for, they went looking for something new.
Now, he’s settled on an integrated service delivery model—essentially putting everything a person in poverty may need under one roof.
Moore said he is making progress on building a “marvelous array of non-profit organizations” to provide the services in Chatham, and hopes to open in Siler City soon. But the largest barrier to implementing the ISD program is funding.
The success of similar programs elsewhere may serve as proof that the costs are worth it. One such program, the Greensboro Family Success Center, run by the local United Way, shows particularly strong results, Moore said.