Climb Wyoming | A statewide nonprofit helping low income single moms discover self-sufficiency - a podcast by Women in Wyoming podcast by Lindsay Linton Buk

Single mothers and their children experience the highest rates of poverty among families in Wyoming. Climb Wyoming is a statewide non-profit helping to alleviate poverty by providing free job training, life skill development, mental health counseling and guaranteed job placement to low-income, single mothers living in six communities around the state of Wyoming.

In 1986, Climb’s founder and Executive Director, Dr. Ray Fleming Dinneen, and her mother, a widely sought-after psychologist and consulting forensic expert, were approached by the federal government to develop job training programs for populations most at risk for living in poverty. Speaking about her mother, Dr. Ray recalls, “So much of my mom was working with those who didn’t have a sense of themselves. She had so much hope for everyone and could see the potential in everyone.” Together, they began building Climb’s transformative model to recognize and unlock the potential of Wyoming single mothers.

Climb’s model is immersive, intense and demands the full attention of participants and staff. Programming takes place over a three-month period with groups of ten moms at a time. The basis of Climb’s programming is career training and placement, but there’s more to permanent life change than getting a job. Climb accomplishes long-term self-sufficiency through life skill training and mental health counseling through group and 1:1 sessions.

Poverty is cyclical and passed down from one generation to the next. Over the 30+ years of Climb’s evolution, they’ve developed one of the nation’s most successful models for moving families out of poverty and have supported more than 2,000 women and their families. The result is a collective force of empowered, self-sufficient women who are confident, upwardly mobile and have created a better life for themselves and their children.

In this multi-subject profile, I talk with Climb’s founder, Dr. Ray Fleming Dinneen, Climb’s leadership staff and the incredible moms who share their journeys of self-sufficiency and vulnerability as a pathway to living more courageously.

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