Examiner-Enterprise Article about Transitional Apartment Graduate Ronda Harris

Getting Ahead of Poverty: Opportunities Open for Local Woman Who Experienced Poverty

Saturday, November 27, 2010 10:21 PM CST

By Emily Droege E-E Staff Reporter

The well-known adage that things happen for a reason may well apply to Ronda Harris’ life. Even though she and her family were thrown into poverty, the experience of living poor opened an opportunity that is now providing Harris with national recognition.

Several years ago, Harris and her husband were enjoying a slice of the American dream, living comfortably with their two children in Louisiana and holding steady jobs.

Then, a series of unfortunate events suddenly struck the couple, and they soon found themselves struggling to make ends meet.

“We moved to Bartlesville in 2006 and were doing fine financially,” said Harris. “Then two years later, I started hurting in my right arm.”

She proceeded to go to the doctor and was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain in an individual’s muscles, ligaments and tendons. As a result of her medical issue, Harris’ workload at Sitel lessened.

Around the same time, her husband, Ivan, suffered a heart attack, causing him to work less as well. A major surgery soon afterwards resulted in him no longer being able to work. The tumbling blows pushed the couple into a spiral of deepening poverty.

“He became ill and wasn’t able to work as much either,” she said. “He then had a triple bypass surgery and was hardly able to work at all.”

Because of the couple’s limited working hours, the paychecks also lessened, while unpaid medical bills began to pile up. Harris said that the financial responsibilities and stress soon became overwhelming, and her family found themselves struggling to make ends meet, such as paying house payments.

“We were becoming victims of situational poverty, and it was something that I was determined to get my family out of,” said Harris.

Several Bartlesville resources came to Harris’ aid as she and her family tried to pull back from poverty. In particular, she credits Vision Onward and community-minded individuals like Jeff Holley, who helped her family move into a transitional housing program.

“If it wasn’t for the transitional housing program, I don’t know where my family and I would be today,” said Harris. “I’m so thankful for those involved that make a program like that possible.”

Harris explained that while she and her family were in the yearly housing program, she took the required Getting Ahead program. Under this six-month course, Harris was able to examine the impact that poverty has on individuals, families and communities and discovered theories of change to get out of poverty and become a productive citizen.

“During my time in the Getting Ahead classes, I really changed my way of thinking. My whole mindset changed. I learned so much about what I needed to do to take my family and myself out of the situation we were in,” said Harris. “I was determined to manage our budget more responsibly and pay off all the high interest loans.”

While in the Getting Ahead class, Harris created a “mental model” as an end of the course class project. She said the mental model is used to deepen and reinforce what students learn as the sessions unfold in the class.

“The classes were so inspirational to me. I kept visualizing the program as a road map, and being a visual person, I wanted to show what I learned on paper,” she said.

During a sleepless night, Harris put pen to paper and started sketching out the beginning of a board game, incorporating everything she learned in the 20-session class in her drawing.

She said she based her sketch off the popular Parker Brothers board game “Life,” with the intent to help people, particularly middle-class and above, understand what it’s like to live in poverty.

“The game shows how anyone can fall into the trap of poverty, whether its through paying fees, being bonded out, not having enough money for a lawyer, being convicted of a felony or falling prey to things such as pay day loans,” she said. “It’s also a way to raise awareness of why people fall in to poverty.”

Shortly after Harris showed her model to one of her class facilitators, M’Liss Jenkins, it was passed on to the hands of Philip DeVol, a developer of the Bridges Out of Poverty effort, a national poverty alleviation movement.

DeVol was clearly impressed by Harris’ mental model, as it soon will be used as a tool for the national Getting Ahead curriculum. As a result, the board game will be manufactured and distributed nationwide by aha! Process, Inc., which is the driving force behind the Bridges Out of Poverty movement.

As further proof of what she has learned and gained from the local Getting Ahead program, Harris also has shared her family’s story and showed her “Building Bridges” game at a national conference in Indianapolis.

“The game is a learning tool for understanding the daily struggles for those who live in poverty,” she said. “It’s also a way for players from poverty, get out of poverty, and for players of middle class and wealth to see the lack of resources and its effect on certain situations,” she said.

As a graduate of the Getting Ahead class, Harris said she is inspired to spread the word and change mindsets of falling into the trap of poverty.

“I want my children and others to know the situation out there,” she said. “I want to be one of the voices who are helping others understand and get out of poverty.”

“I’m so thankful for the Getting Ahead program and all the allies who are part of it,” Harris continued. “It’s not a handout — it’s a hand-up. It helped me take responsibility and strive to get out of the situation my family and I was in. It was a very positive experience and an all together win-win program.”

Harris has recently started her own specialty cake business, Cute as a Button: D/cor, Gifts and More in Bartlesville. She and her family has moved out of transitional housing apartments and now have a home of their own.