Muskogee Bridges Out Of Poverty empowers low income families to radically change their lives by discovering and overcoming barriers to success. It focuses on empowering those in poverty to investigate the barriers in the community that keep people from getting ahead and educates the entire community on the complexities of poverty. Using the concepts developed by Dr. Ruby Payne, Phil DeVol, and Terri Dreussi Smith in their book Bridges Out of Poverty, the initiative seeks to empower those in poverty to identify and use the abilities they already have to solve their own problems through analyzing their realities. Community workshops for business, industry, schools, colleges, city employees, churches, police and fire departments, local service providers and interested community volunteers are available upon request.
The Getting AheadIn A Just Getting By World class is an 20-week class held every Tuesday evening, 5:30-8:30 pm starting in August and January. Dinner is provided to all participants and their children, and supervised childcare is provided while parents are in class.
Dental & Vision Clinic Central Baptist Church is home to Muskogee’s free dental and vision clinic only available for active participants or graduates of the Getting Ahead class and active members of Celebrate Recovery.
Steering Committee
Dan Morris Chair
Joy Sloan Vice Chair
Members At Large Greg Eby Blake Farris Tom Martindale James Poffel Al Stevens Oscar Ray Rich Schaus Karen Watkins
Getting Ahead Graduates Mary Hicks Marvin Green
Getting Ahead Facilitators Linda Ingram Ana Jimenez Charolette Sanders
Ex-Officio Members David Burris Bob Coburn Dr. Tracy Hoos