How you participate

1. Review the SHP website to learn more about our perspectives on poverty and why you can end it in your community in 5 Years or Less.

   • Challenge Assumptions: Understand how your point of view may shape the perspective with which you think about poverty.
     

2. Identify your community of focus.

   • Understand where to target your actions and which actions would be most effective in a given area

     • Identify a community where at least 1,000 people or 5% of the population rely on others for their daily needs.

       • The community can range from a small town of 5,000 people to a larger ones of 200,000 or more.

       • It can be right in your neighborhood or hours away if you live in a more isolated part of the country.

       • The goal is to choose a community close to where you live or work.
         

3. Once you have identified a community, take time to get a sense of the most pressing needs and obstacles faced by the people there. Take note also of who is addressing those obstacles or creating opportunities for residents to obtain financial independence.

   • Sometimes the literature on poverty and how well it is being addressed is misleading, so trust what you see as you look around your community. And when possible, talk with the people who are most effected by poverty there. You can also use sources such as Data USA to learn more about the community.
     

4. Choose an area of poverty on which to work (e.g., housing, employment, food and water) with which you have local knowledge, a special interest, relationships, or lived experienced.
   

5. Decide if you will work as part of one or more cohorts.

   • You do not have to join a cohort to take action; you can engage on your own or with family and friends.

   • Cohorts may be helpful in exchanging ideas, providing support along the way, or comparing results of actions taken. More information on cohorts can be found here.
     

6. Whether working on your own or in a cohort, utilize the Action Guide to help shape your approach.
   

7. Develop a strategy that runs from start to finish, detailing the steps you will take and describing how your solution will work.

   • Have specific outcome goals more so than outputs.

   • If applicable, list your partner(s) and their role(s).

   • Write out a specific timeline, with benchmarks to hold yourself or your group accountable.

     • Place metrics to adequately track progress.

     • If you are not achieving expected outcomes, be prepared to recalibrate your approach.

     • Anticipated obstacles and how you will overcome them.
       

8. When you achieve your goals, inform SHP’s network of your results so that local wins can build national momentum.