As she and her husband raise six children on their limited incomes, Muskogee resident Regina Guerra knows what it means to just get by.

“Right now, we’re living day to day,” Guerra said. “We’ve got to make it through one day before we can plan the next.”

Guerra said her husband, a car mechanic, hasn’t been able to find work.

“I work as much as I can as a hairdresser,” she said. “But with the economy, a lot of people don’t have the money to get their hair done.”

Thousands of Muskogee residents find themselves just getting by.

In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 23 percent of Muskogee residents lived in poverty, which the bureau set as $22,490 for a two-parent family with two children and $35,300 for a two-parent family with six children. Nearly one third of related children under 15 lived below the poverty threshold in 2009.

The City of Muskogee Foundation seeks to help at least some of those families through Bridges Out of Poverty. The program would feature Getting Ahead classes, where participants learn why they’re in poverty and how to get out, plus a follow-up program linking participants with “allies.”

“A lot of problems we have seen through the Foundation — poor health, poor education — when we looked at some of the root causes, we saw the prevalence of poverty,” said Dr. Tim Holder, chairman of the Foundation’s Health and Wellness Committee.

“We’d like to start small and build on it every year,” Holder said. “If we can get 15 to 20 families out of generational poverty a year, that could create huge possibilities for the community.”

Generational poverty is when families have two or more generations born into poverty. Situational poverty comes after a crises, such as loss of a job or home.

Holder said the Health and Wellness Committee was drawn to Bridges Out of Poverty after hearing a Bridges presentation at a Foundation planning retreat and hearing of the success Bartlesville has with the program.

The program seeks to help communities combat poverty by helping people in the middle and upper class understand poverty’s “constant survival mode.”

DeVol, who presented a Bridges Out of Poverty program for the Foundation in April, said people living in poverty must solve problems on a minute-by-minute basis. They do not have the luxury of having a future-focused mindset like middle class and upper class people do, DeVol said.

The program is based on a book by the same name written by DeVol and educator Ruby K. Payne. A key theme in the book is that people in lower, middle and upper classes have certain mindsets and hidden rules. DeVol also wrote the workbook used in the proposed Getting Ahead class.

However, before Muskogee can plan that first class, the Foundation must find people willing to commit their time to the program.

“We want to make sure we have some of the key people involved,” Holder said. “One thing we learned is that we have to take people through the training to change their mindsets.”

Holder said three people — Tom Martindale, Lisa Wade Raasch and Tracy Hooks —  attended classes to be certified program trainers in the Getting Ahead process. Martindale is attending class this week for a follow-up program.

The program also needs people from business, education, governmental agencies, churches and other entities, Holder said.

“This is a long-range effort, five or 10 years,” said Martindale, executive director of the MONARCH drug and alcohol treatment program for women. “The key is the involvement of the upper class and the middle class. One thing that doesn’t work in this program is to view it as a quick fix.”

City of Muskogee Foundation Executive Director Frank Merrick said the Foundation is committed to funding the program for the long haul. The Foundation allocated $107,500 to set up the first year of the program. Merrick said the cost includes instructor training and materials charges. He said program costs in future would be less.

While Holder said he hopes to start classes in the fall, Martindale said he is not ready to set a date. Martindale said he will get an idea of a timeline after a training session this month.

DeVol said the Getting Ahead classes feature 15 to 16 two-hour sessions.

DeVol called it a “process of investigation.”

He said participants, called investigators, “look at the impact poverty has made on them as individuals.” Class leaders guide the investigators. DeVol cited three main elements:

• Hidden rules and mindsets of the lower, middle and upper classes.

• Look at what resources the different classes use to survive or succeed.

• Look at the different languages the different classes use.

Gina Elias, executive director of Bartlesville’s Building Bridges program, said participants look at barriers in themselves and in the community that keep them in poverty. For example, participants learn how to avoid “predatory lenders,” who offer quick financing at high interest rates. They learn how to keep a job and how to communicate effectively with employers, law enforcement and others.

DeVol said investigators then make a plan of “specific, measurable, identifiable and time specific goals.”

“When you have the plan, you put a team of people together to help you get out of poverty,” DeVol said.

A second component of Muskogee’s program, called Circles, would link graduates with people to encourage and help them. Circles is not part of Bridges Out of Poverty, but a follow-up.

“They come together not as mentors, but as allies,” DeVol said. Elias said these circles help graduates establish social capital.

“Before we got our Circle program going, we began to see relapses from our Getting Ahead graduates,” she said.

Bartlesville’s Circle program takes a minimum of 18 months commitment from graduates and allies.

Billy Rogers, a participant in Bartlesville’s program, said he entered the program “homeless, jobless, carless and broke.”

“But the program put me back on track,” Rogers said, adding that although he still seeks a job, he has found a car and an apartment. He said Building Bridges led him to a program to clear his record of felonies, which keep him from landing a job.

In Muskogee, Guerra said she can see how a program like Bridges Out of Poverty might help.

“We have no time, but I’ll make time if it benefits the family,” she said.

Guerra said she and her husband moved from Dallas to Muskogee about eight years ago to be near his family. She said that over the years, they have lived in and out of poverty.

“Jobs are harder to get here. Pay is mostly lower. It’s harder to support a family,” she said. “We need higher paying jobs. Just more jobs, better jobs.”

 She said the family lives on food stamps and gets food from food pantries. She said she goes to the Rayfield Baptist Church free lunch program every day.

Mary Hollinghead frequents the lunch program with her 2-year-old son.

“He likes eating with the kids,” Hollinghead said. “And it’s really cool inside here.”

She said her house has only a couple of window air conditioning units.

Hollinghead said she has no job mainly because of a back problem. She lives on Social Security and disability benefits.

“You more or less have to live day to day,” she said.

Bree Long, deputy director for Community Action Partnership, said she sees a lot of Muskogee residents in those situations.

“It’s like a hopelessness, that you can’t escape the situation you’re in,” Long said.

Martindale said Bridges Out of Poverty could help those like Hollinghead and the Guerras.

“It depends on the circumstance,” Martindale said. “The entire Bridges course and Circle program is aimed at developing resources to help them leave the poverty environment. It makes no difference why they are in poverty. Everyone can benefit from knowing how they got there and doing the investigative work to find what barriers are holding them back.”

Reach Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.

Volunteers needed

The City of Muskogee Foundation soon will look for volunteers willing to be trained as “allies” for graduates of the Getting Ahead Class. To volunteer or for information: Lynsie Laughlin with the City of Muskogee Foundation, (918) 577-6562.