Getting Ahead While Getting Out
This pre-release workbook, based on Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World, prepares returning citizens to manage their reentry to society successfully. They develop three plans. The first is to get them through the first 72 hours when returning citizens too often re-offend. The second plan is to meet their immediate needs; the third is to transform their lives. Imagine returning citizens coming back to a community where there is a Bridges Collaborative offering the complete Getting Out Reentry Model.

If you could write the story of your future, how would it begin and end? If you've spent part of your life - or most of your life - struggling to get by in the world, the idea of actually getting ahead might seem out of reach. But even if your story has been filled with barriers, vanishing opportunities and setbacks, the next chapter can change all that. Getting Ahead is an incredible learning experience for individuals willing to participate and ready to create their own future story focused on getting out of poverty!
Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By World is a 16 session workshop series providing people motivated to getting out of poverty the tools and support necessary to 'Get Ahead' in today's world. Working in a group learning environment, you will investigate your experience of poverty, as well as the impact within our community, providing critical information to take action to end poverty.
2020 Getting Ahead groups forming soon:
Now is your time!
As a Getting Ahead investigator, you will do your own research to discover:
Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By World is a 16 session workshop series providing people motivated to getting out of poverty the tools and support necessary to 'Get Ahead' in today's world. Working in a group learning environment, you will investigate your experience of poverty, as well as the impact within our community, providing critical information to take action to end poverty.
2020 Getting Ahead groups forming soon:
- Getting Ahead While Getting Out - provides citizens returning from incarceration and their families a comprehensive community-and relationship-based approach to reentry that begins in pre-release and follows through with long-term support. Classes will begin January 2020 in local correctional facilities. A companion Getting Ahead for spouses or significant others of those who are incarcerated is being planned for Spring 2020; contact pam@ethnn.org if you are interested.
Now is your time!
- Be part of a small group "kitchen table" workshop that meets for 16 weekly sessions.
- Learn that money is only 1 of 11 resources used to define poverty. Learn how these resources affect your life and the lives of your family. By examining the resources you have versus the resources you need, you will be able to formulate a personal plan, based on goals, to get out of poverty.
- Move beyond thinking about making a change to actually doing it!
- This next chapter of your life is about what YOU want, and taking charge of your life to build your future story.
As a Getting Ahead investigator, you will do your own research to discover:
- The realities of conditions in your community and how they impact you and your family
- Some of the "hidden rules" for getting ahead
- Skills that give you confidence to do what it takes to get ahead
- How to build resources and make connections at home and at work
- Ways to deal with change and create stability in your life
Questions? Call, email or text Pam Jacobsen, 903.871.5009, pam@ethnn.org, for more information.
Certified Facilitator
Pete Mendolia
Certified Facilitator
Pete Mendolia
"The things I have learned in this course are not everyday lessons. They are not common sense. The average person has no idea about the world we live in. Now I am teaching my children so they don't experience what I went through. Once you know, you know, and you can never see the world the same way again."
Tavania Hodges, College Student