Each month, Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada serves more than 35,000 individuals, many of whom are trapped in the cycle of generational poverty, reaching out to our organization and other agencies across our community seeking services to meet their most basic needs.

Approximately 12.7% of Washoe County families live in poverty, and families with young children comprise 13.7% of the population. Three years ago, we were bold enough to ask: What if we could create an experience that would result in someone being the last person in their family to live in poverty? What if a child could be truly elevated out of poverty, thanks to the commitment of their moms/dads to learn new skills and strategies?

After three years of planning, Catholic Charities recently launched our Elevating Families program, an innovative method of economic mobility mentoring called EMPath that strengthens and improves executive functioning skills to create opportunities for those living in poverty to change the trajectory of their life.

The University of Notre Dame, through its LEO initiatives, matches researchers with social service organizations to conduct impact evaluations that identify innovative, effective and scalable programs and policies that help people move permanently out of poverty. The Lab uses a cohort model to train groups of organizations in impact evaluations and then works with them to design, launch and share learnings from their Randomized Controlled Trial research studies. Catholic Charities is the only Nevada-based human services agency to have ever been chosen to work with LEO.

Through this extraordinary opportunity, we have the ability to address generational poverty. Catholic Charities will implement the proven Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) model. Pioneered by Dr. Elisabeth Babcock, this model was successfully employed at the Crittenton Women’s Union shelter program in Boston. EMPath, unlike traditional case management, utilizes the EMPath Bridge to Self-Sufficiency — a comprehensive approach pairing clients with EMPath coaches. This involves standardized goal identification and unique mentoring experiences led by certified mentors, backed by extensive research on poverty's impact on brain function. The Bridge, facilitated by mobility mentors, guides families in achieving goals across family stability, well-being, education, financial management and employment.

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