Climb Wyoming is a statewide, nonprofit organization that is working to alleviate poverty by providing job training, life skill development, mental health counseling, and job placement to low income, single mothers in the state.
Single mothers and their children are the most likely demographic to experience the highest rates of poverty in Wyoming. These mothers are often either unemployed or are working low paying jobs to make ends meet. Climb’s goal is to help these mothers discover self-sufficiency through career training and eventual placement.
“Our mission is to serve those families that are most in need in the state of Wyoming. So, Wyoming’s most vulnerable families, those are low-income, single moms,” said Katie Hogarty, CEO of Climb.
“We have a very solid program and are continuously asked by national partners to speak on behalf of Wyoming and for poverty programs because no other job training program in the country has the strongest outcomes.”
The success of Climb’s program can be partially attributed to their focus on mental health, something that is not often addressed in other job-placement programs in the country.
“We’re a mental health based model. So, what we know about poverty is that poverty has the same impact on the brain that trauma has on the brain,” said Hogarty.
“Our program creates safety for people that are in trauma, through structure and through relationships, so that they can create new neural pathways and have new experiences where they’re more connected to higher executive functioning skills.”
With a 98% graduation rate, Climb shows a significant ability to change the lives of these mothers in the state. Of all these graduates, 86% doubled or tripled their wages within two years of graduation from the program.
“[Climb] was amazing. I say it makes me want to tear up, because I moved here at the beginning of 2021. And I came from a not-so-great environment and not such a great person. I moved here to kind of get away from all of it and then was introduced to Climb and it totally flipped my life around,” said Kayla Wheeler, a Climb graduate and mother of two.
“At first I was like, ‘I’m not going to do this. I don’t have time to do this.” And then those few months go by so quick and then all of the sudden I had this new life.”
Climb has been in business since 1986, and has contributed to over 44 million hours of work to the Wyoming economy. Locally, they are partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Laramie Interfaith, SAFE Project, the University of Wyoming, and Ivinson Memorial Hospital.
“We have over 50 moms working on campus right now. And if you think about what that means for the economy, and what that means for families and the trajectory of those families, that’s huge,” said Hogarty.
“I love that the partnership that we have has opened up so many doors and has really helped shape the economy and Laramie. It’s such a strong return on investment. So yeah, that’s awesome.”
Anywhere between 140 and 160 women go through job training in Wyoming, and Climb has helped over 1,300 women in total enter higher paying careers.
“There are going to be barriers and obstacles and all of these things that are going to get in your way and try to deter you mentally from wanting to pursue this, but if you can do it, I say go for it,” said Wheeler.
“I went from serving and bartending to now pursuing my bachelors in nursing.”
