Empower UC Begins With Workers Reporting For Duty

Tuesday is the first day of work for some of the manpower behind the Upper Cumberland’s initiative to bring 800 families out of poverty.

UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley said the some 30 employees behind the Empower Upper Cumberland pilot will be stationed at the UCHRA offices and other partner agencies.

“Just getting all the paperwork and getting them assigned offices,” Farley said. “Tomorrow may be a little hectic as we get through all the logistics of working for the agency, but hopefully, we’ll get started on our training this week.”

Farley said the real work with families will begin early next year. Farley said until then, workers will be trained until they are assigned a family. Farley said the goal is to find a modern way to provide services to young families.

“Times have changed, and we need a new way of doing our work,” Farley said. “Hopefully, this will allow us to better do our job. We’re also hoping that we are able to gain capacity. So at the end of the three years, we’ve added more people working on the ground, more resources, more tools. We’ve got high expectations that at the end of three years we will see families moving out of poverty.”

UCHRA was one of just six organizations statewide that received state funding for the three-year pilot program. Farley said work has been ongoing for over a year to get to this point.

“It’s always great when you can actually start work and having an impact,” Farley said. “I think I can speak for all the employees on board and the ones starting tomorrow. We’re very excited about the opportunity this will provide to the Upper Cumberland.”