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Columbiana Co. looks to get ahead of poverty
By D.A. WILKINSON
LISBON
Local social-service and faith-based organizations want people to get ahead in Columbiana County.
“Getting Ahead” is the name of a new initiative to help people get out of poverty that was unveiled Wednesday for the county commissioners.
The competitive grant to run the program came from the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The county’s Department of Jobs and Family Services obtained a grant of $124,000. It was one of six agencies statewide that obtained funding.
A mandatory 20-percent share will bring the project to about $148,000 and will come from a variety of nonprofit, faith-based and other organizations.
Craig Newbold’s New Life Technical Institute in East Liverpool will help with the services needed to launch the program.
The money will not go directly to the needy, but it will be used to train people to help others.
The curriculum for the volunteers is called “Getting Ahead in a Just Getting By World.”
Initially, mentors will work one-on-one with 40 people to help them develop a life plan. The program initially will be limited to families with at least one child.
Eileen Dray-Bardon, director of the county’s JFS, said the goal is to train 120 people who will help others. Those who are helped can then become volunteers.
Carol Bretz, the executive director of the Columbiana County Community Action Agency, said she has been watching the cycle of poverty through three generations in the county.
“It takes a community to make changes” to change that cycle, Bretz said.