Member Convening Schedule
Join us March 25 and 26 at Boston University
11:30 a.m. Registration/Lunch
12:30 p.m. Welcome from EMPath!
Jennifer Lowe and Kim Janey from EMPath offer a warm welcome to Exchange Members who have traveled to Boston from across the country.
12:45 p.m. Opening Session: Evolving the Bridge
Learn why and how EMPath is evolving one of Mobility Mentoring’s essential elements, “the Bridge”! In this session, Ashley Winning and Jennifer Lowe of EMPath will share how continuous learning from EMPath staff, Exchange members, and participants, combined with recent research informed the updates. Get a sneak peek of the draft Bridge and learn about implications and next steps for rollout.
2:00 p.m. (3) 90 min. Workshops:
Putting the Pieces Together: An Effective Multi-Generational Plot
Research is clear that utilizing a multi-generational approach to economic mobility is best practice, however, what is not clear is how to do that effectively. This workshop with Louise Marsden, Ryan Quinn, and Mercy Kilby from TOA as well as Helen Shabani, a program participant focuses on sharing the lessons learned from a 5-year pilot program focused on single head of household mothers with diverse cultural identifies and their children living in a neighborhood in Portland, Maine. The workshop will highlight the cultural, community, coaching, funding, and data challenges and solutions discovered during this pilot. The goal of this workshop is to provide specific strategies to help "put the pieces together" for other programs and agencies interested in effective multi-generational programming that utilizes the Mobility Mentoring Model.
“Bridging” Mobility Mentoring and NYC Child Welfare Prevention Services: Lessons Learned & Best Practices for Family-Serving Sectors
The NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has partnered with EMPath since 2020 to deliver Mobility Mentoring (MM) as a part of their prevention services continuum via contracted agencies. Prevention services aim to keep children safely at home in their communities by addressing the underlying factors that put them at risk for maltreatment. Pilar Bancalari of NYC ACS, Princess McPherson of University Settlement, and Ashley Winning and Rosemarie Caward of EMPath will discuss the integration of the MM framework into child welfare case management while maintaining fidelity. ACS will share how service design was used to adapt the Bridge tool to reflect the experiences families served in prevention services. EMPath partners will describe their learnings from implementation in child welfare prevention, including ongoing training, one-on-one touchpoints with providers, and convening monthly provider cohorts. A provider will offer insights around supporting frontline staff to implement tools and deliver services to families from diverse backgrounds. The presenters will also share best practices in implementing MM to fidelity in this sector.
Lifecycle of Poverty
Maureen Flowers and Kimberly Heath of United Way of South Hampton Roads will facilitate an interactive poverty simulation that will shed light on the daily struggles encountered by ALICE households while showcasing their determination to achieve personalized goals; and will share how their program has demonstrated its ability to deliver impactful results.
3:45 p.m. Spotlight on Supporting Immigrants and Refugees
Maggie Bick and Marissa Turner of Career Path Services & Soheila Azadi and Eddie Hardy of Portland Refugee Support Group will discuss supporting immigrants and refugees; the session will be moderated by the CEO and founder of EDEN. The session will share experiences and perspectives on supporting newly arrived individuals with pathways to economic mobility. Jehu Leconte, Founder and CEO of EDEN will be moderating this session.
5:00 p.m. Celebration of 10 Years!
The Exchange is celebrating 10 years! Join us for food, drinks, music and our annual member recognition ceremony. The Exchange will also honor member organization, COTS (Creating Opportunities to Succeed) as the first organization with a certified Mobility Mentoring program.
8:30 a.m. Registration/ Breakfast
9:15 a.m. Welcome from EMPath!
Natalie Veilleux, Sr. Director EMPath will provide a recap of yesterday's event and offer a warm welcome to Exchange Members for Day 2.
9:30 a.m. Spotlight on Supporting Returning Citizens
Tatum Hawkins and Michelle Bryk of Grand Rapids Women’s Resource Center will discuss supporting justice involved women and strategies to prepare individuals for re-entry, and the unique challenges women face as returning citizens. The session will be moderated by A.J. Lucky, Director of Advocacy at EMPath.
10:45 a.m. (3) 90 min. Workshops
Intersectionality of Poverty & Child Neglect
An overload of stress on families increases the risk of child neglect. The weight of poverty, especially, can overload parents’ abilities to provide the supportive relationships children need. With compelling data and practical illustrations, this session will review poverty’s destructive impact on the well-being of children, and how issues like mental health and substance abuse are symptoms of dysfunctional systems. Meghan Christian, Leah Cerwin, and Ayesha Teague of Childrens WI will explore how Mobility Mentoring’s frame has been tapped to create structure in a family support home management service. We will then assist in strategizing to empower your community to become nurturing environments for all children.
Creativity in Integrating the 2-Gen Model
Creatively integrating a 2-Gen model of mobility mentoring paves the way for a holistic approach in poverty alleviation. Raquel Leal, Kylee Lillis, Lori Haskell, and Carrie Pickell from The Restoration House will share practical ways that their team of Family Advocates, Youth Advocates, and entire Family Support Team work together to provide a supportive, therapeutic web for whole family flourishing.
Data-Driven Metrics for Mobility Mentoring: Using Benchmarks to Understand Program Practice
In this interactive workshop session, Laura Beals, of EMPath will explore the key benchmarks (metrics) for Mobility Mentoring, focusing on: (1) what they are and why we use them; (2) how to collect and analyze the needed data; and (3) using your results for continuous learning and improvement, including how to share metrics with staff, what questions to ask when reviewing, how to have conversations about the metrics, and how to take action on your findings. We highly encourage all programs and program staff (including supervisors/leadership), regardless of where they are in their Mobility Mentoring journey or whether program supervisors/leadership, to learn about the importance of continuous quality improvement to Mobility Mentoring practice.
12:30 p.m. Lunch & Connections
1:45 p.m. (3) 90 min. Workshops:
Harnessing Executive Skills for Goal Achievement
Setting and progressing toward good fit goals is an art and a science. In this session, participants will learn what Executive Skills are, how they develop, why they matter for goal achievement, and how to integrate Executive Skills strategies into family engagement. Participants will identify their own Executive Skills profile, learning how to leverage those skills to improve and accelerate their own goal progression in their work, as well. Participants will learn how two Chicago-based organizations, New Moms and Chicago Commons, learned about and integrated Executive Skills-informed goal setting strategies into their family coaching from Dana Emanuel of New Moms and Vikki Rompala of Chicago Commons.
Early Childhood Services with Families Experiencing Housing Instability
Lisa Cruden from Family Promise of West Michigan will address the importance of early childhood service integration for providers that work with families experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Homelessness disproportionately impacts families with young children, whose unique needs are often not addressed by the emergency shelter and housing support services. In this session, we will discuss tangible ways that providers can integrate early childhood services into their programming and how children, parents and early childhood providers can begin to see immediate positive impacts from this additional service being implemented.
Applying Mobility Mentoring: A Global Perspective
Olivia Darby, of the WONDER Foundation will discuss applying mobility mentoring from a global perspective.
3:30 p.m. Reflection and Call to Action
AJ Lucky & Ruthie Liberman of EMPath will share how your organization can support economic opportunity and mobility by sharing your stories. We will release our new Exchange Advocacy Toolkit, offer ways you can easily engage in advocacy and provide a sneak preview of our Spring 2025 Capitol Hill Action Day.
4:00 p.m. Connect over Cookies!
It's networking time! Join Exchange members for some time to connect and network over cookies and beverages. Meet other Exchange members who are doing similar work using a Mobility Mentoring informed approach.