The Starkville non-profit organization Bridges out of Poverty is hosting a day long training session Tuesday.
The “One-Day Community Training Class” will seek to inform the middle- and upper-class Golden Triangle residents about the realities behind local poverty.
The course will be held at the Starkville Sportsplex from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bridges out of Poverty has a unique view of poverty and how to go about combating it locally. The organization teaches classes to those in poverty in which they refer to those taking the class as “investigators.” The idea is that those in poverty are the real poverty experts, said Bridges president John Breazeale.
The goal of Tuesday’s class is to help share what Bridges has learned about poverty with members of the middle class. Breazeale said there are many “norms of the middle class” that those with economic resources don’t recognize that they have. The goal of this class is to point out intergenerational poverty in Golden Triangle and explain to those who live outside of poverty what life is really like with fewer resources.
“That’s the thing about intergenerational poverty — we don’t notice it, as the middle class,” Breazeale said.
The classes taught at the day-long class will explore what Bridges calls the “hidden rules of the middle class.”
The class can be signed up for at starkvillebridges.com, or by showing up at Starkville Sportsplex at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
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