In a recent piece, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a leading non-partisan forum on poverty in the U.S., named EMPath’s breakthrough coaching approach as an effective model for supporting parents in Head Start programs.

The article, “Three Ways Head Start Programs Can Use Federal Relief Funds to Support Parents’ Economic Mobility,” emphasizes the importance of supporting not just children in Head Start programs, but their parents too. It offers solutions for advancing families’ economic mobility goals.

“Recent federal legislation collectively provides over a billion dollars in new funding for Head Start, offering an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen the program’s anti-poverty programming,” the authors write. “There is already rigorous evidence that Head Start improves the educational outcomes of young children. Now is the time to expand and strengthen services to support parents’ own economic mobility goals – through education and career services – with equal intensity and attention to quality.”

The authors give suggestions for strengthening parent support in Head Start — one of which is EMPath’s Mobility Mentoring® coaching model. They write:

“EMPath’s Mobility Mentoring coaching process and the Bridge to Self-Sufficiency® model offer intensive, executive skills-based coaching for adults focused on goal setting, decision-making, and persistence in achieving economic mobility. There is some early research from Boston to suggest that this type of coaching can support adults to complete degree programs and find better-paying jobs.”

It’s true — Mobility Mentoring is an effective way for families to achieve their goals and become economically self-sufficient. At EMPath, we know that individuals don’t move out of poverty — families do. Our intergenerational coaching approach expands on traditional 2-Gen coaching approaches to emphasize the whole family. Our Economic Mobility Exchange™, a fast-growing global network of over 140 organizations working to promote economic mobility in their own communities, trains practitioners to move away from traditional “case management” and towards a partnership model of coaching.

We know Mobility Mentoring works and we’re thrilled it is continuing to spread across the country. Thank you to the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity for this shout-out!

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