You’ve been surviving. It’s time to start building.
Breaking Ground is ECHO’s flagship self-sufficiency program, a 15-session, four-month cohort for working adults who are employed, capable, and tired of surviving paycheck to paycheck. Not because they aren’t trying. Because no one ever showed them the full picture.
Over four months, a small cohort of 10–12 participants investigates the real conditions driving instability — at home, at work, and in the community — and builds a concrete plan to change them. Peer-supported. Evidence-based. And designed to produce results that last.
What participants explore
In Breaking Ground, participants investigate:
- The real conditions at home, at work, and in the community that create and sustain instability.
- The hidden rules of economic mobility and how to navigate them.
- How to build the resources, relationships, and habits that open doors and keep them open.
- Practical tools for managing change, stabilizing finances, and building a plan that holds.
- The power of writing a new future story, and then following it.
What Changes?
Breaking Ground participants don’t just gain knowledge. They gain ownership.
Research across diverse sites consistently demonstrates that program graduates show significant improvement in poverty-related knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived stress, mental health and wellbeing, social support, and goal-directed behavior.
In plain terms: participants leave with a plan, a peer network, and the confidence to execute.
Am I A Good Fit?
Breaking Ground is designed for adults who are:
- Currently employed (full-time, part-time, or multiple jobs)
- Experiencing recurring financial stress despite consistent work
- Ready to invest four months in building something different
If you’re employed but struggling with frequent family or situational crises and you have a willingness to improve your personal situation, then ECHO’s ‘Getting Ahead’ program is right for you.
Participants are accepted on a rolling basis. Click the button below to apply for an upcoming class or to learn more about the program.
For Employers: invest in your workforce
The instability your employees carry into work doesn’t stay at home. Housing stress, childcare problems, financial crisis…these show up as absenteeism, distraction, and turnover. Breaking Ground addresses them directly.
ECHO partners with Tallahassee employers to bring Breaking Ground to their teams through cohort sponsorship, referral partnerships, and workplace presentations. Employers who invest in this program see measurably more stable, engaged, and retention-worthy employees.
To explore a partnership: contact Freddy Branham at fbranham@echotlh.org or (850) 224-3246, extension 204.
The research Behind the Program
Breaking Ground is built on the Getting Ahead in the Workplace framework, developed by Philip DeVol and grounded in the research of Dr. Ruby Payne. Studies conducted across diverse populations and multiple sites demonstrate consistent, significant improvements in participants’ poverty-related knowledge, perceived stress, mental health and wellbeing, social support, self-efficacy, hope, and goal-directed behavior and planning.
This is not a feel-good program. It is an evidence-based intervention with a documented track record, and it is the model ECHO has chosen to anchor its stability work.
