Self-Sufficiency Program
Community Progress Council’s Self-Sufficiency Program empowers and coaches low-income families to attain a family sustaining wage in order to achieve and maintain economic self-sufficiency and live free of public assistance.
CPC’s Self-Sufficiency Program has two phases. The first phase starts with “Getting Ahead in a Just Getting by World” conversations where participants investigate how poverty affects their lives and their communities. Over several weeks, participants examine their current situation, build resources, and begin to develop a vision for the future, creating a plan for getting ahead.
Getting Ahead graduates who are motivated and ready to transform their lives will be invited to participate in the second phase of the program – where participants work intensively with a Self-Sufficiency Coach to more fully develop a future story and create a concrete plan to move toward self-sufficiency.
Self-Sufficiency Coaches will build strong relationships with participants and will serve as mentors, advocates, and advisers. Coaches are there to coach and provide support, not to manage a family’s journey. We will work together with you to identify individual strengths and needs, and hold participants accountable to your goal plan.
Our Services
'Getting ahead'
Through a series of facilitated conversations, “Getting Ahead” focuses on building a mental model of your life now, and planning for your future story. Participants in the “Getting Ahead” conversations receive a stipend for each week of participation. In addition, a meal and childcare are provided. The program is offered at locations across York County with 6-12 participants in each group, and will run two times per year, starting in April and October.
Self-Sufficiency Coaching
Participants will be assessed and coached to improve their situations on the following self-sufficiency indicators: employment, income, housing, transportation, health insurance, education, childcare, and food and nutrition. Each participant will identify their strengths, barriers, and interests, and will use that to develop a goal plan. Every plan will center on attaining the education and training necessary to secure employment that pays a family-sustaining wage. Coaches will support participants as they acquire the education, skills, and employment they need to become financially stable.
Our Funders



