American Falls has become the 50th city in the nation to become an “Opportunity Community,” a program aimed at eradicating poverty one town at a time.

The Opportunity Community model was created by Donna Beegle, a poverty and community expert who spent many years living in extreme poverty herself.

“I realized that we were graduating people from college in every field without the history of poverty in this country,” Beegle said. “There really is no clear definition.”

Beegle said she started investigating reasons why people become stuck in poverty. One of the reasons she identified is that people in poverty feel isolated and don’t know how to access networks of potential supporters.

She created the Opportunity Community model based on the idea that certain members of the community who are well educated and well connected are trained to be “navigators” and aid members of the community in poverty — their “neighbors.”

The program begins with a leadership summit where community leaders are trained by Beegle herself to understand poverty and its impacts. American Falls leaders, including the mayor and superintendent, underwent this training several months ago.

“I really destroy those myths that people get rich off welfare or have babies to get welfare,” Beegle said. “I completely destroy all of them.”

Those who attended the prosperity summit, which was hosted a couple of months after the leadership summit, agreed to become navigators. Essentially, they consented to share their contact information, networks of support and advice to their neighbors in poverty.

The third and final event was an all-day summit Feb. 9 at American Falls High School, where the neighbors and navigators came together to learn about each other and understand how to help one another.

“We work with people currently in poverty and really help to remove the shame, rebuild hope, reduce isolation and connect them to a poverty informed community,” Beegle said, “so that no matter what door they go through, they are treated with dignity and respect.”

Mindi Nelsen, a counselor for the American Falls School District who serves as a navigator and a member of the Opportunity Community advisory board, said the experience opened her eyes to the reality of poverty in her own community.

“I learned how to release my judgments,” Nelsen said. “I truly believe most people do the best with what they know how to do. If you teach them better, they’ll do better. But they can only learn from those around them. If we don’t find a way to bridge those gaps, they’re never going to learn.”

Nelsen is just one of over 50 people who signed on to be navigators in American Falls. Another 20 people attended the event as neighbors. The neighbors were primarily recruited through organizations such as the Southeastern Idaho Community Action Agency, according to Nelsen.

There were also a couple “super navigators,” or people who have previously been in poverty and gotten themselves out of it, such as Beegle herself.

“We are really trying to build a connective, poverty-informed approach, rather than the simple, ‘Here’s a three-day box of emergency food. Good luck,’” Beegle said.

Nelsen said she believes the program has the possibility to greatly impact the American Falls community, though it may be some time before the effects are truly seen.

“I think it’s going to take a little while,” she said. “Like most programs, I think in about three years you’re really going to see the effects.”