The IPS model is a cyclical process for developing and implementing community-driven solutions to address poverty. It begins with listening, learning, and convening — generating ideas backed by strong community support. Promising ideas advance to pilot programs, where IPS builds, tests, and shares outcomes with the community. Through collective evaluation with both the organization and the community, we ensure initiatives are effective, adapting as needed to create long-term, sustainable solutions.

Our approach has been shaped through experience — by learning from and working alongside low-income individuals, better described as ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed). With the launch of our first initiative, Circles NWA (a chapter of Circles USA) in 2021, we saw leaders from low-income backgrounds step to the forefront, partnering with other agencies and city leaders to drive community-wide efforts to reduce poverty.

It quickly became clear that this kind of collaboration, built on leadership development, is both powerful and vital. In response, we took a further step by launching the VOIS Institute and the VOIS Fellows program featuring graduated ALICE participants from our Circles program who are now making a deeper investment in their growth as community leaders.

With the growing momentum and increasing influence of our Circle Leaders and VOIS Fellows, we are beginning to see exciting initiatives targeting significant barriers to poverty reduction come to life. One example is our Driving Change fair auto financing program, designed to create an alternative to the predatory, high-interest loans that are often the only option for individuals with low or poor credit.

Finally, we believe that reducing poverty requires a broad community commitment and that begins with making visible what is too often invisible. Our Becoming Visible storytelling initiative brings the real experiences of our ALICE population into the light through community-wide events, videos, and a soon-to-launch podcast.

Our mission is to develop and implement community-driven, innovative solutions to end poverty. Our vision is a community committed to ending poverty.