10 graduate from MP, Wayland’s Getting Ahead class

Aaron Swan's life of financial hardship is changing thanks to Building Bridge's Getting Ahead class through the Fellowship Cup.

'I was brought up in poverty,” Swan said. '(Getting Ahead) has given me the strength to acknowledge my shortfalls,” Swan said. 'My next step is to find a job and not go back to my weaknesses. I want to do better.”

Swan was one of 10 students in Mt. Pleasant and Wayland to graduate from the second Getting Ahead class. The graduation ceremony was held at Faith Christian Outreach Church on Monday, Feb. 25, where students shared a meal with family and friends and celebrated together.

Getting Ahead is a 16-session class that helps people in poverty build resources for a more prosperous life for themselves, their families and their communities. Participants, who are called 'investigators,” received a free meal and child care at each session and were paid a weekly stipend to help support.

Swan took the class at the urging of his sister, Nichole Gonzalez, facilitator of the Mt. Pleasant class and 2018 Getting Ahead graduate.

'She came to me and said it was time to make a change,” Swan said. 'And here I am.”

Other investigators have similar stories. Broc Burnell was encouraged to join Getting Ahead by Cynthia Hallet, facilitator and graduate of last year's program.

'I thought it would be beneficial for him,” Hallet said, who facilitated the class in Wayland.

Burnell, who took Getting Ahead in Mt. Pleasant, said it gave him perspective. Instead of living day by day, he is now planning for the future.

'I'm spending less on playful things and entertainment and more on my needs. Instead of blowing money on what I think I want, I'm spending it on having a roof over my head,” Burnell said.

A year after Hallet graduated from Getting Ahead, she continues to set goals - and meets them.

On Jan. 1, Hallet was up to date on her mortgage payments. At the end of December 2018, she had paid off her car 10 months early.

'Sometimes you have generational poverty, other times it's situational poverty. It's not because that's who you want to be,” Hallet said. 'This class taught me there are a lot more reasons (for poverty) that I didn't know about. As for the future, I'm looking at becoming a part of our city council.”

Rhonda Woods, investigator, said after her husband died the Getting Ahead class sounded like something she could use to improve herself financially.

Woods learned a lot about what Wayland offered such as food pantries, transportation options and other resources that people often don't use because they let their pride get in the way, she said.

She even got involved with the Wayland Youth Center, saying it's important to help these kids now as a community rather than later to avoid them finding themselves living in poverty.

Kenney Shearon, investigator, said he joined the class to find out what it was all about.

'What is this Building Bridges?” Shearon said he asked himself. 'It helped me understand the causes of poverty and what I can do to move myself out of poverty.”

Shearon quoted the Chinese proverb that says you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. In the same way, Shearon said Getting Ahead teaches people how to take care of themselves for the rest of their lives.

Gonzalez, facilitator of the Mt. Pleasant Getting Ahead class and graduate of the 2018 class, said she took Getting Ahead after hitting rock bottom. With it, she learned how to spend her money and that only 30 percent of her income should be going to rent.

'I went from homeless to living in a two-bedroom apartment based on my income,” Gonzalez said. 'My future goals are to get off government assistance and build a better life for my daughter and myself.”

Other Getting Ahead graduates were Sarafae Neitman, Amethyst Harman, Maggie Hawkins, Jeffrey Hawkins and Sheri VanElsacker.

Ken Brown, director of the Fellowship Cup, said assisting in facilitating the 2019 Getting Ahead class and last year's Getting Ahead class has been an unforgettable journey.

'To personally connect with individuals in each class is growth for me and a chance to build relationships,” Brown said.

The Fellowship Cup is working on creating a Building Bridges community board with representatives from all economic backgrounds in the community. Brown said the board will work together to find solutions to poverty in Henry County and overall build a better community.

Anyone interested in sitting on the board can contact the Fellowship Cup at 318-385-3241. The Fellowship Cup is located at 203 N. Jefferson Street in Mt. Pleasant.