Addressing the Issue of Poverty in Community: A Town-Gown Experiment

Background and Purpose: In 2019, the National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS) and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, D (CCADW) collaborated in creating the Pope Francis Compass Program. The purpose of this program is to address the issue of poverty in Wards 7 and 8, the two jurisdictions with the highest number of people living below the poverty line in the District of Columbia. The program recruited eligible MSW candidates from Wards 7 and 8 who could commit to working for three years in these communities, post MSW graduation. In 2024, NCSSS and CCADW with the financial assistance of the Clark-Winchcole Foundation embarked upon an evaluation of the program. The evaluation was multi-method. It included surveys completed by 18 of the 21 graduates of the program, qualitative interviews with 12 of the graduates and an assessment of the impact Pope Francis scholars had with their clients. In general, the graduates were satisfied with their educational experience, their course work at NCSSS and their field work with CCADW. The interviews indicated that graduates thought their experience was a great opportunity to learn and teach about Wards 7 and 8. They spoke about the importance of the Compass Program cohort and the staff. And they said their work with clients was meaningful. Navigating school, field work and employment and, for some parenting, proved to be common challenges. In this presentation we will focus on the impact of the program on the people served

Methods: CCADW adopted the Fenn-Jostad Self-sufficiency Matrix developed by the Snohomish County, Washington State Self-Sufficiency Taskforce “to help providers of housing and social services track the progress that individuals are making towards self-sufficiency. The measurement tool consists of 25 outcome scales. The authors of the tool recommend that users select the measures that best meet their needs. CCADW selected the following 9 outcomes: Access to Services, Career Resiliency, Employment Stability, Housing, Income (Federal Poverty Level, Life Skills, Mental Health, Physical Health and Safety. The student was required to rate each member at various points using the following 10- point scale: Thriving (9-10), Safe (7-8), Stable (5-6), Vulnerable (3-4) and, In-Crisis (0-2). The student and his or her field instructor discussed the rating and appropriate changes were made.

Findings: These findings show positive change in all nine measured dimensions. We then subjected the data to a series of paired sample t-test in order to show which changes were statistically significant. The findings showed that there was significant, positive change on5 of the nine scales. These included access to services, housing, income, life skills and safety.

Conclusion and Implications: The findings of this evaluation show that the program has been successful in recruiting and educating a workforce of social workers who have made a difference in addressing poverty in the lives of people in Wards 7 & 8 in the District of Columbia. The presentation will address the implications for social work education and for addressing poverty in vulnerable communities.