Youth Core Ministries/Core Community helping families lift themselves out of poverty

Submitted by Sheryl White

Check out the story below: It is only one beautiful true -life story from many!

Raised by a single mother in the projects in Connecticut. At 16, I worked full-time to help make ends meet. Bullying, fights, and teachers that seemed unable to connect with me were part of my childhood. In 2006, my mother and I bought a home in South-Central Kansas.  I currently take care of my handicapped mother and my 13-year-old high functioning autistic daughter. My household can be quite stressful as I am the only able-bodied person with most responsibilities on my shoulders. I was going through a painful annulment process from a marriage to an emotionally abusive alcoholic when I joined St. John Core Community. Retail therapy and overeating were my “go to” coping mechanisms to deal with my anxiety and depression. On-line shopping, credit card debt, and payday loans spun out of control. When I joined Core, I had 5 credit cards in collections. I was in denial of just how bad things had become financially!  Being in Core, I learned that I'm not alone and resources are available that I didn't know were there. I realized I had toxic people in my life that I needed to distance from for my life to improve. I've learned how to budget and how to look at money in a whole different way. I became more self-confident and was able to get a higher paying position as weekend supervisor caring for special needs adults which resulted in a pay raise! I have raised my income by 63% and lowered my debt to 5% of what it was. I'm caught up on my home taxes, have paid off my payday loans and make monthly credit card payments that are in collections. When starting Core, I was $37,000 in debt. My goal is to be debt free by November! Core Community helped me realize that I was able to help myself more than I ever thought I could! My life is a work in progress but it has definitely improved as Core helped me realize my abilities and options.   Kelly Newman, St. John Core Community Core Leader

The mission of Youth Core Ministry’s Core Community is engaging our communities to lift families out of poverty. We believe God cares deeply for the poor and so should His children. Core Community is a relationship-based program that builds purposeful friendships across class lines to provide cognitive strategies and creative problem-solving moving individuals from poverty to self-sufficiency. For the last seven years, we have been embracing families and teaching them positive steps to increase their income to 200% above the Federal guidelines of poverty. We currently serve 15 communities with Core Community.  These are Greensburg (Kiowa County), Stafford, St. John, Larned- Pawnee County, Great Bend- Barton County, Kingman, Herington, Atwood, Augusta, Anthony, Harper, Meade, Marion, and Emporia. We also have a Core Community group, 40 miles east of St. Louis in Bond County, Illinois.

Core Community was created from our work with youth over the last 25 years.  Through our years of service as South-Central Kansas Youth for Christ and now Youth Core Ministries (YCM since 2017) our ministry team has spent countless hours with young people in ministry. Many of these youth were raised in poverty but experienced spiritual transformation and growth. Deborah Factor was dismayed to watch these young people repeat the cycle of poverty in their families as they entered adulthood. As Deborah Factor (CEO of YCM) has said many times “I am not okay with that!” In response to this concern, she researched the issue of poverty through educational venues and in 2006 was introduced to the work of Dr. Ruby Payne in “Bridges Out of Poverty.” The belief was that more should be done to aid our young people in becoming healthy, thriving adults. This belief needed to include an outreach to help support young people get out of poverty. Deborah guided two young women from our ministry through “Getting Ahead in a Just Getting by World” by Phil Devol, a workbook aligned with the principles of Payne’s “Bridges Out of Poverty” designed specifically for those in poverty.  Factor observed life changing outcomes in both of their lives. The outcome? These two young women walked out of poverty as they were empowered to lead and make positive decisions. The powerful influence of middle-class friends walking alongside them within a community of positivity helped them find the necessary tools and resources. This success led Deborah to present Core Community to our board as a major initiative for our ministries. She believed this relational program in conjunction with the “Bridges” and “Getting Ahead” curriculum was the ticket for resolving poverty for many families in the counties and communities that our ministry serves. She soon became trained as a “Bridges” certified instructor. And in 2012 the initiative was adopted by the board of directors and Deborah was given the initiative to start these programs in the counties we serve.  

The success of Core Community is phenomenal. Currently in all our sites 293 individuals have graduated from our first “Getting Ahead” phase, 59 adults and kids have walked out of poverty, 296 kids’ lives have been impacted for the better, $481,976 debt has been erased by all of our families, and we can boast of a $1,415,356 combined increased annual income for our families.

Do you need a hand up to better your life and that of your family? Contact our YCM headquarters for more information, 620-723-2727. They will direct you to the appropriate contact in your area. If you live in the Meade area, please contact our Meade County Community Liaison, Ann Classen at alcrcp@att.net or 620-629-1813.

Submitted by Sheryl White

Youth Core Ministries

Development Coordinator