The Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities Training Conference will take place February 21-22, 2012, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Vada Sheid Community Development Center on the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home (ASUMH) campus.

Bridges Out of Poverty represents a powerful tool for change. Register for the conference at www.NCAccess2Success.org and become a part of a winning team fighting poverty and finding the answers for North Central Arkansas. The training conference educates and empowers, while preparing the community on how to assist low-income people to become self-sufficient, rather than enabling on dependency.

Jodi Pfarr, of Minneapolis, MN, will be this year’s conference speaker. Currently, Pfarr fills the role of President of J Pfarr Consulting.  She established her own consulting firm over a decade ago. Pfarr provides training and consulting for community agencies and businesses seeking to understand and effectively address the issues stemming from poverty. Prior to J Pfarr Consulting, she served as Executive Director of Emma Norton Services. She has managed two facilities that provide housing to women with low incomes. Pfarr has worked as a certified critical debriefer for the St. Paul Police Department and published the law enforcement guidebook “Tactical Communication”. She is a former board member of the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association. She is an active member of “A Minnesota Without Poverty” organizing team. Pfarr holds a Master of Divinity degree.

North Central Arkansas ACCESS (Arkansas Communities Connecting Effective Services for Success) has three main goals. ACCESS strives to increase employment and earnings, move the region’s low-wealth families out of poverty, and improve the economic vitality of the region.

ACCESS aspires to create a model process for communities to use that will change attitudes about people living in poverty, as well as the issues they face. Once implemented, ACCESS’s plan will demonstrate this model by transforming poverty-stricken lives into productive lives.

For more information about the training conference, call Jackie at 870-508-6203, or e-mail him at jedmonds@asumh.edu.