CORE COMMUNITY
PROGRAM
The model is simple, but powerful: bring people together, build practical resources, form trusted relationships, and keep walking long enough for real change to take root.
We Understand Poverty.
Core Community is a two-phase program designed to help families move from instability toward long-term economic stability, healthy relationships, and renewed hope.
Core Community began in 2015 as a program of Youth Core Ministries after leadership recognized that many student families were caught in the cycle of poverty. Today, the model continues to equip rural Kansas communities to lift families out of poverty through education, encouragement, mentoring, and long-term support.
Poverty is more than a lack of money — it is a lack of resources.
Core Community is built on a nationally recognized framework that identifies eleven essential resources individuals and families need to achieve long-term stability. Financial resources matter, but lasting progress requires more than income alone.
*Doctor Ruby Payne, "A Framework for Understanding Poverty".
When these resources are strengthened together, individuals are better equipped to make informed decisions, build stability, and create sustainable change for themselves and their families.
CORE COMMUNITY IS SOLVING POVERTY
Two Phases designed for progress.
Phase 1: Building a foundation
The journey begins with a 24-week class where participants, called Core Leaders, gather weekly for a shared meal, childcare, encouragement, and practical learning.
The Core Leaders complete the “Getting Ahead” curriculum and celebrate the completion of the first phase with a community graduation ceremony.
The weekly rhythm matters. Families are not handed a packet and sent on their way. They are welcomed into a consistent, supportive environment where they can learn, teach, share, ask questions, make plans, and take steps forward.
Phase 2: Building resources
Immediately following graduation, Core Leaders enter the second phase of the program, where they begin to build resources and continue working to remove life barriers so they can achieve their goals and begin to dream again.
Core Leaders are connected with supportive community members who continue walking alongside them. Volunteers, often called Core Friends, help provide encouragement, friendship, and practical support. These relationships help bridge gaps that many families in poverty experience — gaps in social capital, trusted advice, encouragement, and access to community resources.
For volunteers, this phase is deeply meaningful. You are not simply filling a slot. You are becoming part of someone’s support system.
Core Leaders begin building financial, emotional, and social resources, as well as an Economic Stability Plan.
Common barriers that Core Leaders are working on often include:
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Lack of Financial stability
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Lack of long-term employment
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Housing concerns
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Lack of transportation
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Educational needs
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Health and medical needs
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Legal concerns
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Family well-being concerns
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Lack of healthy relationships
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Lack of hope and motivation
Lasting change takes time.
That is why Core Community continues relationships and support for as long as needed. It typically takes families two to five years to create sustainable change for themselves and their families. Although they often begin to experience stability before they are out of poverty, families need encouragement not only when they begin, but also when they face setbacks, make progress, celebrate wins, and keep building a more stable future.
Core Community stays close enough to celebrate the job gained, the debt paid down, the apartment secured, the transportation solved, the child stabilized, the confidence restored, and the hope rebuilt.
A Typical Core Community Night
A Core Community gathering includes:
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A shared meal
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Childcare for children
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Practical teaching
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Honest conversation
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Goal-setting Encouragement
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Connection with volunteers and community resources
It feels less like a class and more like family.
Interested in joining? Find a location near you.
Who Core Community serves.
Core Community serves individuals and families who are ready to work toward stability and a better future.
Participants may be facing poverty, financial instability, isolation, family challenges,
transportation barriers, housing struggles, employment obstacles, or a lack of reliable support.
They come with real challenges.
They also come with strengths, dreams, determination, and voices that deserve to be heard.
YOU CAN LEAD THE CHANGE
Core Community invites you to Lead the Change — right in your community, with people you may already pass at the grocery store, sit beside at ballgames, or see around town. If you're interested in learning more or serving on an Advisory Committee, being a champion for the program, or volunteering, let us know.