We cannot deny the pride that we feel when someone sees our equitable, tier-based food market for the first time and says, “This is so great! How did you come up with this idea?” However, our pride stems not just from the fact that we have a unique approach but, more importantly, because the market was crafted from what we learned from the marginalized within our community. One of our core values at Main Street Marketplace and Meeting Place is to truly listen to the voices within our community in order to gain understanding of their needs. This shared-perspective approach inevitably leads to new ways of thinking and to more innovative long-term solutions.

At the Meeting Place, we offer an in-depth class called “Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World,” which teaches strategies for assessing one’s resources and discovering tools for moving beyond instability. Gathering around a table to share meals together for 15 weeks enables our Getting Ahead class participants to discuss their daily struggles and personal experiences of how difficult it can be to move beyond their challenges. It takes time to build trust, so we encourage participants to stay the course by paying them a stipend. Yes, that’s right…rather than charging our participants to attend, we actually pay them. We recognize the need to understand the unique barriers that those affected by poverty experience. In order to move beyond treating symptoms, we must first understand the root problems. From the very beginning of our Getting Ahead classes, participants know that the information they share is vital to the work that we do as an organization, and, even more importantly, to helping facilitate insight and compassion within our community.

Thanks to the help of United Way, we have been able to provide Getting Ahead classes in both English and Spanish, as well as a Getting Ahead While Getting Out program for those recently released from incarceration. Thanks to the voices of our program participants, we have been able to create our community market, a healthier option for buying food locally. The insights we have gleaned from our Getting Ahead participants have helped us address not only nutritional needs, but also the need for access to mental health care and other resources that foster long-term stability among our local community.

Now more than ever, your support ensures we build a healthy, thriving, and equitable community. As a community change agent, you and your gift to Rowan County United Way will improve individuals’ and families’ lives by making a positive impact in our community.

The “Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World” curriculum is designed to help individuals step outside of day-to-day crises and learn to think about how to build a more sustainable life. At times, when living in financial stress, one can only think about surviving for that day. Getting Ahead provides a different atmosphere in which participants are the investigators of their own lives and their own future story. The group is given the opportunity to have meaningful conversations with others who understand their struggles. They develop healthy relationships and create friendships as they grow together, all while acquiring new resources and sharing ideas that create sustainable solutions for a more equitable community.

Hope Oliphant is executive director of the Main Street Marketplace and Meeting Place.