Ten people graduated from Catholic Charities of South Carolina’s (CCSC) Getting Ahead program in December 2025. The courses are designed to help individuals experiencing poverty understand why they are “just getting by” and build concrete plans toward long-term stability.
Graduates Brandon Anderson, Martha Cobb, Willa Dorsey, Kashonda Grant, Bernard Hazel, David Hazel, Jacqueline Hazel, Rosa Hazel, Chanda Sanders, and Tammie Scott completed this financial literacy and life-skills course just before Christmas.
This milestone celebration was especially meaningful as it marked the first class facilitated by two former graduates, David and Kendra Blango.
### Program Background
The Getting Ahead program, based on the book *Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World* and the *Bridges Out of Poverty* framework, has been offered at CCSC’s Georgetown office twice yearly since 2018. The program is now expanding to Charleston and other field offices to widen its reach as part of Catholic Charities’ services, which assist more than 50,000 individuals annually.
### Building Pathways Out of Poverty
Participants attended group sessions over 16 weeks, exploring the realities of poverty, local community barriers, and the “hidden rules” of economic class. They completed a personal “future story,” during which they built budgets, identified local resources, and set practical goals around employment, education, housing, and family stability.
Crystal Geathers, grants specialist for CCSC, helped initiate the Getting Ahead program in 2017 alongside Sister Mary Francis Bassick, a Daughter of Charity. Geathers emphasized the importance of the program:
> “We walk alongside individuals who are working hard to build stability for themselves and their families. Getting Ahead helps them not only understand the challenges they face but also discover their strengths, set meaningful goals, and create a path toward lasting change. It empowers people to realize that their future can be different, and that they already have what it takes to get there.”
The program boasts a 97% success rate. In its early years, at least 35 individuals completed the program in Georgetown, with many achieving significant life changes.
### Stories of Stability and Success
Graduates have moved from unsafe, unstable housing into safe, subsidized apartments after learning to navigate housing systems and expunge records. Others have launched small businesses, including a lawn-care company, applying the financial planning, resource-building, and confidence gained in the workshop.
Rhett Young, executive director of CCSC, said that “mission” drives this statewide nonprofit. He shared inspiration from St. John Paul II’s *Redemptoris Missio* (Mission of the Redeemer):
> “The missionary is urged on by ‘zeal for souls,’ a zeal inspired by Christ’s own charity, which takes the form of concern, tenderness, compassion, openness, availability and interest in people’s problems. Jesus’ love is very deep: he who knew what was in man (Jn 2:25) loved everyone by offering them redemption and suffered when it was rejected” (RM 89).
Young added, “This is the bedrock of all of our programs—to serve with the heart of Jesus with a zeal for souls inspired by Christian charity, *caritas*.”
Kendra Blango reflected on the program’s spirit, saying,
> “Learning in love always helps when trying to get ahead.”
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The Getting Ahead program continues to build hope, capability, and lasting change for individuals and families across South Carolina, providing a proven pathway out of poverty through education, compassion, and empowerment.
https://themiscellany.org/former-graduates-lead-program-seeks-break-cycles-poverty