Mission & Vision
Welcome to Bridges Peterborough
We are ordinary citizens who are passionate about challenging the prevailing ways of addressing poverty.
We question the way resources are allocated.
We question the power and advice of poverty professionals.
We are changing the conversation about poverty and privilege by making concrete differences, with limited resources, in the lives of Bridging Team participants.
Social isolation is an epidemic affecting the health of individuals and communities across the western world.
Social networking supports healthy social and economic growth by stimulating interdependent communities. Most social networking happens within the sub-cultures of socio-economic classes. (Low-income folks tend to hang out with other low-income folks. Middle-class hangs with middle-class, and wealthy folks hang with wealthy folks.) Each “class” has its own Hidden Rules where values and behavioural norms create a sense of “belonging”. (Observations found in “Bridges Out Of Poverty: a framework for understanding Poverty” by Ruby K. Payne.
Bridging Teams
Bridging Teams create broader social networks across economic class lines, improve attitudes, open social and economic doors, and change the conversation about poverty.
Using a simple recipe of Food, Fund, & Storytelling within a safe, learning, environment, small groups foster a sense of belonging and support for individual growth and social change.
Short-term Intended Impact: By 2023, the Bridging Team (BT) model will be utilized by six diverse groups to equip ninety people in new relationships to increase social and economic participation in the community, resulting in increased family and community stability.
Mid-term Intended Impact: By 2025, a Neighbours Network of 300 people (including 100 people and their families living in poverty) will have replaced the negative stigma of poverty with an appreciation of the skills, assets, and gifts of thousands of people living in poverty in Peterborough.
Ultimate Impact: By 2030, Bridges Peterborough will have changed the conversation from fixing poverty to creating a community practice of fair sharing. We will connect people across economic classes in a broadly based network of support.