Pathways Past Poverty began in response to the October 2006 release of alarming Census Bureau statistics that showed a growing percentage of our Larimer County population living in poverty. Looking at this critical data, it became imperative to begin a community dialogue about what we need to do to be proactive and begin to turn this trend around before it became too large to effectively address.

As the organization focused on health and human services across our county, United Way was the logical choice to convene this conversation, in collaboration with Colorado State University, NCEDC, The Coloradoan, and other non-profit organizations. As a result of these partnerships the Pathways Past Poverty initiative was formed.

This vision has been adopted as the overarching vision for the people of Larimer County:

“We are an engaged community, cooperating to ensure that every individual has their basic needs met, has choices now and has opportunities to thrive, grow and live with dignity in the future.”

Since poverty is such a complex issue it is important to explore solutions from a variety of perspectives.  Experts agree that the causes of poverty involve:

• Personal responsibility
• Social climate
• Economic and business climate
• Public policies

There is clearly no single solution that can address all of these causes.  Often, communities make the mistake of only addressing one or two of these causes.  The Pathways Past Poverty initiative is attempting to develop solutions from all four perspectives.  After our initial meeting last October, we recruited 156 community members and stakeholders to form eight concurrent committees focused on the following topics:

• Enhancing Childhood Education and Achievement
• Creating More and Better Jobs that Lead to Self-Sufficiency
• Providing Job Training and Increasing Skill Sets
• Increasing Individual Responsibility for Financial Stability
• Providing Solid Foundations for Families
• Addressing Diversity and Inequality
• Strengthening Youth and Families
• Enhancing the Safety Net Through Policy Change

These committees worked simultaneously through a process by which they developed goals for our County to aspire to over the next several years.

The focus of their work was not to identify a gap and then build a program to fill the gap. Instead, we trusted that there were many talented and motivated organizations doing that work in Larimer County, so we asked the committee members to create goals centered on systemic changes that could help to decrease our poverty rate by offering more legitimate opportunities for our impoverished neighbors to access a path to move from poverty to self-sufficiency.

This entire process was overseen by a Steering Committee consisting of community volunteers from across the County.

The Steering Committee adopted the following fundamental principles to help guide this initiative. These Principles are significant because they are the values underlying the changes the Steering Committee wanted to see in our community. As the eight committees developed their goals these principles were used to better define and evaluate the scope and content of the proposed goals.

All Pathways Past Poverty goals had to incorporate 3 or more of these Fundamental Principles:

• Leads to systemic change
• Removes barriers
• Assumes long-term viability
• Encourages synergistic approaches
• Promotes respect and diversity
• Sustains economic health
• Shows measurable change
• Develops individual empowerment
• Increases community ownership of the solution

In April of 2008 the Approach Committees presented their preliminary goals to the Steering Committee. It was agreed that the goals would then be released to the larger community for feedback at several different public meetings and forums.

In April/May 2008 over 200 Larimer County citizens attended our Fort Collins and Loveland Community Forums. Focus groups were also held with low-income participants in Loveland, Fort Collins and Estes Park, as well as a focus group with the Local Legislative Affairs Committee. 

All forum and focus group participants were asked to prioritize the goals in the order they felt would be most affective to move people from poverty to self-sufficiency. Participants also gave feedback about what they believed were the most important causes of poverty and/or barriers to individuals becoming more self-sufficient.

To see the Community Forum Summary CLICK HERE.

To see the Community Forum Results CLICK HERE.

The feedback and rating of the goals was complied and presented to the Steering Committee. A Larimer County asset map was also developed, listing the key collaborations or organizations focused on creating County wide systemic change or other important players that focus on this particular goal’s issue and could be a collaborative partner in the strategy development process.

Based on the information from the public meetings and the asset map the Steering Committee then finalized and prioritized 12 community goals for the Pathways Past Poverty Initiative to build strategies around and implement.

To see PPP’s goals CLICK HERE.