For 1 out of every 4 people in Watauga County poverty is a daily reality.
NETworX Watauga is a initiative built around community with the goal of bringing education and resources back to the community, and letting them decide the path forward, together. NETworX Watauga is about unifying people who are struggling financially and utilizing our community's own resources to provide access to the opportunities, education, and relationships they need to become self-sufficient
. Our NETworX cohorts brings together about a dozen individuals or families- called participants- who are motivated to change their lives and build within thier community. They attend 12-16 weekly training sessions, where they learn what it takes to get ahead, set goals, and develop plans for achieving those goals. Ongoing meetings provide support and in-depth information from our cirriculumn such as poverty and it's various dimension, financial planning, job training, interview skills, how to find safe and affordable housing, and access to realistic health care options. Economic success for NETworX participants is not the only essential outcome of our work. We want to change perceptions at the community level, reduce barriers encountered by people trying to move out of poverty, create new relationships across racial, economic, and class barriers and create new policy at the local, state and national levels that demonstrably enhances opportunities for citizens to become self-sufficient.
