At GOEX Apparel, our purpose is to sustain fair wage jobs that liberate workers from poverty and empower them in their families and communities. We sustain those jobs by selling garments. But how do we make sure our employees are truly liberated from poverty and do not remain one medical bill away from everything falling apart? How do we not just pay them fairly but invest in them so their families can truly flourish? The answer is an action-oriented framework that unlocks the God-given potential in children, families, and communities called Strong Family. Keep reading to learn more!
 

Family Breakdown 
The essential cell of civilization is the family, but they are breaking down all over the world. When families break down, communities break down, societies break down, nations break down. Poverty crushes families, resulting in millions of children suffering and flooding into generationally destructive systems. We believe the best approach to truly solve this crisis must happen at the family level, one at a time, focusing on empowerment and long-term sustainability.

The Heart of Poverty 
Definitions of poverty have largely focused on material and financial stability; however, the more we research, the more we learn that poverty is far more complex and encompasses powerful social and psychological challenges as well. A landmark research project by World Bank called Voices of the Poor captures the core truth: chronic social, economic, and emotional suffering pushes people to the margins of society, causing a devastating loss of self-worth and belonging in the process. Feelings of inferiority and shame ostracize people from community, strip them of their dignity, and cause dangerous isolation. The dispiriting, demoralizing, destabilizing loss of dignity is the very heart of poverty.

 
The Heart of Flourishing
Commonly accepted academic definitions of “flourishing” focus on outcomes largely related to material and financial stability. However, when listening to families experiencing poverty in a variety of cultural contexts, we learned their definition of “flourishing” greatly differs from typical outcomes-based definitions.  Their responses were remarkably similar and incredibly eye-opening.  Families largely define flourishing as the process of helping others in need - serving families in distress - even as they are experiencing need and distress in their own lives. This is how families who have been pushed to the margins define the very heart of their own flourishing. 

Measuring Flourishing
The Child Status Index (CSI) was developed at Duke University to objectively and holistically assess an individual’s general well-being across 6 domains. It is currently used in 20+ countries and is designed to be accessible across cultural, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. In collaboration with the creators of the CSI, the Strong Family team adapted the assessment to measure human flourishing in children, adults and entire family units across 8 domains. This evaluation provides a baseline measurement of a family’s current vulnerability and tracks their progress toward flourishing. These domains are: Food & Nutrition, Shelter & Care, Protection, Wellness & Health Care, Psychosocial, Education & Skills Training, Spiritual Health, Financial/Economic Literacy. The last several years of results have documented that 96% of participants improve in at least 6 domains and 76% improve in all 8!

Where Does the Work Begin?
On day one, each family is given their first task – to draw a Dream Board and hang it in the most prominent place in their home.  Almost without fail, the first dream they create is about their children – enough money to send their kids to school or to care for their health and provide sufficient meals – little things we often take for granted. Often, for the first time, a child realizes they are their family’s #1 dream! Most Strong Family participants achieve this first dream within 18 months – then they dream bigger adding another and another dream board as they visually track their accomplishments. The Dream Board is not just a fun activity, there is science behind its effectiveness. The part of the brain that controls decision-making (the Limbic Brain) has no capacity for language.  However, emotion and decision-making are processed in the same part of the brain and have catalytic influence on one another. Try it yourself!  Next time you make a personal goal, don’t just write it down, draw a depiction of your life after achieving that goal and see if it increases your action! 

This Works!
Traditional deficit-based approaches to poverty alleviation rely on outside forces to assess problems and provide solutions. Strong Family focuses on family and community-based solutions built on the leveraging of assets already available. Backed by years of research and science across cultures and agencies, we have witnessed the long term effectiveness of this approach to not just making sure kids have enough to eat but to making sure that families and communities can flourish in the long term without ongoing charitable support.  This work restores dignity and empowers families. This is generational change that keeps children out of systems and with families that love them and want to care for them and for their neighbors! 

Strong Family is active in 6 countries – Haiti, Uganda, Congo, Ethiopia, Lebanon and India - with over 9,800 families currently participating. If you’d like to more information on Strong Family, please email [email protected].