Core Community Ulysses Wants To Bring People Out Of Poverty

One local couple saw a need and answered the call.

Sheila and Ivan Koop were both born and raised in Ulysses. Sheila was a Special Education teacher for USD214 and a chance meeting would set the course for her and her husband's partnership with Core Community.

"I went to a meeting at High Plains Educational Cooperative when I was a Special Education teacher," Sheila explained. "A lady was presenting over zoom about this particular program, as well as information on trauma informed care.

Sheila said the presenter, "told her story."

"She had been in poverty before and went through a similar program to Core Community," Sheila said. "She got out of poverty and now she has a job. She is well known and highly regarded. She is doing very well."

Sheila, Ivan and their daughter then attended a second presentation in Garden City.

"The lady said those who usually get involved in this are retired teachers who always looked out for the under dog, and that's just a little bit crazy," Sheila said, adding with a laugh. "At that point, my daughter looked at me and said, 'That's you.'"

Sheila, had also served before as the principal of a charter school in Ulysses called Ulysses Career Learning, had experience working with students who were "potential" dropouts.

"I brought those kids in and they did vocational training," Sheila said. "They went in to the community. They did jobs in the community, on the job training - all  as part of their curriculum.  I loved it! The kids were doing wonderful, but they closed the program - no more grant money. It was a wonderful program. I've always felt so bad that I couldn't keep helping my kids."

When she and Ivan retired from their jobs, they knew they wanted to keep helping others.

"So, we decided to look in to this program and see if we could get it started here," Sheila said. "Each one of our advisory members have something that drew them to it.  Some have been in poverty themselves. They know the struggle. They've gotten out and they want to help other people get out."

Members of the Core Community Ulysses Advisory Committe include: Keith Wood, Cheryl Baldwin, Becky Zerr, Toni Irvin, Tony Cavasos, Cathy Cavasos, Ruby Romero, Sheila and Ivan Koop, and new Core Community Ulysses Community liaison Rose Blomander. Jayce Winters was a member, but she is moving from the area.

The purpose of the program is simple.

"This program is to help people walk out of poverty," Sheila said. "It's not a program where we are just giving them money to get by. We are working with them. We are building a relationship with them and taking them through a curriculum. Then we mentor them for two to five years to help them get out of poverty."

According to the Koops, the program they use for Core Community's is "Getting ahead in a just getting by world."

"It's a 20-week course," Sheila said. "They come at 5:30 and we give them a meal - a sit down meal for them and their family. Then at 6:15 we split off. We will provide them with childcare if they need it. They will go to their class at that time."

In the class, according to Sheila, there will be people from the poverty level, middle class and upper class.

"We meet together so we can learn to 'speak each other's language'," Sheila said. "We have found you don't really speak the same language if you are in different classes. We need to learn to communicate with each other."

The classes may have a different "view" on life.

"People in poverty may not see past today or the week," Ivan said.

Sheila agreed.

"They are living in the moment, because they are just trying to get by," she said, "where those in the middle and upper class will have dreams and goals set further out.. We help them with that and build those relationships in order to build trust."

According to Ivan, they work to help those in poverty overcome obstacles.

"Whether it's somebody who doesn't have the documents to get a driver's license or whatever those situations may be," he said. "We walk along beside them to help them."

The program in Ulysses is just gearing up and hasn't actually begun as yet.

"We got our initial $10,000 that we needed to hire a community liaison we've hired her - Rose Blomander. We are now working on trying to reach our budget, which is $77,000, in order for us to actually start the program. We can't start until we earned that one year salary or have it pledged, so we don't get in to the middle of the year and find out, 'oh we ran out of money.' We are trying to practice good stewardship as well."

Ivan added that they don't want to get in to financial difficulty, while they are supposed to be helping other people.

"We have about $70,000 more to raise before we actually start the program," Sheila said.

Ivan added that fundraising will be a large part of Blomander's job.

"It is more of a one on one with people," Sheila said. "She will be making contacts and building relationships with people. We have gotten some grant money and we are doing some of that kind of fundraising."

Sheila said they appreciate the grant monies they have received; however, they want to build partnerships with individuals in the community as well.

The Koops and Blomander will be available to present information on their program to organizations who are interested in learning more. They foresee Blomander hitting the ground running when she completes here training in a couple of weeks.

Once the program is "officially" started, Sheila says they anticipate there being 10 to 20 individuals along with their families going through it at a time.

"It depends on the response we get from those wanting and seeking help to get out of poverty," she said.

The Core Community Program is a branch off of Youth Core Ministries in Greensburg, Kans.

"We have our own separate Ulysses organization," Sheila stressed. "We have our own advisory board. Youth Core Ministries takes care of us, trains us and they hire and fire our people. We work under their 501c3. They take care of all the financial part of it and we work on helping people."

According to Sheila, the two have separate accounts for funds.

"If people want to donate to Core Community, they would need to make sure if they write a check they make it out to Core Community Ulysses," she said. "Or, if they go on line to the Web site they can donate that way, but they need to specify that it is for Ulysses to get that money."

What do the Koops hope to gain from the program?

"I just want to see people excel and do the best they can do - reach their potential," Sheila said. "I would consider it a success if I could see that happen."

Sheila hopes through the program they can help make better employees for those who are hiring as well.

"It will help the community in multiple ways," Ivan added.

Sheila also hopes to make a difference in the local schools.

"When teachers and parents get together they don't always 'speak the same language' either," she said. "I want to be able to help the parents be able to communicate better with the teachers and the teachers be able to communicate better with the parents. We want it to impact the schools. We want it to impact the entire community of Ulysses."

Sheila said it is an important program to them because they were both born and raised here.

"I don't even have to look at the statistics to know I have worked with people who have been in that situation," Sheila said. "They are our friends, our neighbors our community - we want to help as much as we can. We want to be the hands and feet of Christ. We want to show people the love of Jesus through helping them and building that relationship with them. We want them to see Jesus through us."

An important factor of the program is that it isn't just giving people a class and then moving on.

"Core Community doesn't count somebody as a success or out of poverty until they have reached 200 percent of the national poverty guidelines," Ivan said. "When they say they've had 147 people out of poverty that's people who are earning twice what the poverty guidelines are, not just barely, but exceeding. There's a point between the poverty guideline and the 200 percent where people are more stable and they are not worried day to day about paying their bills. Core Community will work with them until they are at that 200 percent level. It's not just get them here and then let them go back under. We try to get them well above and work with them so they have a firm foundation to succeed."

Ivan said Core Community is a a very well structured program and stressed again that they would be leading by example.

"We aren't going to start the program until we have a year's budget so we won't fall in to financial difficulty as an organization," he said.

If you would like to help, there are a number of ways to do just that.

"We have volunteers who will provide the meals," Sheila said. "We are looking for volunteers - organizations that would like to provide the meals for a month, once a week or if they just want to do it one time. Wherever our location will be that we meet, there will be a kitchen. They can help serve the meal as well."

Sheila said this can be a good opportunity for organizations, churches, women's groups and more to participate in.

Other areas someone can help out include helping with childcare, become a Core friend (someone who mentors a person taking the class), help out with poverty training, and of course donating financially.