New GA Grads: 100. Total GA Grads in Michiana: 400+

We had a busy spring session of Getting Ahead classes, with 90 individuals graduating from several partner agencies, including Ivy Tech (Warsaw, Elkhart & South Bend), YWCA (South Bend & Elkhart, including our first Spanish class), Weed & Seed, Stone Soup, 21st Century Scholar Parents, Goodwill and Cass County (MI) Bridges Initiative. At each of the graduations, graduates spoke of the same things: hope and future stories and social supports.

One graduate shared how this was the first time she taken a step back and looked at her life and where she was going. And now, she had a plan! Life wasn’t just going to happen to her anymore. After Getting Ahead, she was ready to direct her life.

Another graduate, Barb Jewell, thanked her classmates for sharing a part of their lives with her. She spoke of how Bridges had “bridged a gap of knowledge on my part.” And later, she said:

“We found that resources surround us. Just how far are we willing to take advantage of those resources? There are helping hands reaching out to us. Grab one hand; grab many hands. Know what you want, where to get it, who to ask, and what to do with it. If you don’t, you are at a standstill. Ask, ask, ask until you have the answer. Never give up.“

We hope you find opportunities each day to engage with the Bridges material. We hope it challenges and inspires you as it has our Getting Ahead graduates.

We welcome these new graduates to the process. We hope you will join us as we ally ourselves with them, encouraging them through their plans and future stories, and providing support as they cross the bridge out of poverty.