The Institute for Worthy Living

The Institute for Worthy LivingThe Institute for Worthy LivingThe Institute for Worthy Living

The Institute for Worthy Living

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The secret to ending generational poverty

WHY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS MUST GO BEYOND TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL LITERACY PROGRAMMING


For decades, community organizations serving marginalized families have worked tirelessly to provide financial education, job training, and resources to help break cycles of poverty. But despite these efforts, generational poverty remains a deeply rooted issue.


Why?


Because ending generational poverty isn't just about teaching financial literacy - it's about transforming how families think about wealth, worthiness, and abundance. 


At The Institute for Worthy Living, we believe that true financial transformation starts with shifting mindsets, beliefs, and family dynamics around money - and we've developed a powerful tool to do just that: Family Legacy Meetings.


Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short


Most financial literacy programs focus on individual knowledge and behaviors. But wealth-building is a family affair - what one person believes and does with money affects everyone else. Also, many families have deeply ingrained scarcity-based narratives about money, often shaped by generations of financial struggle. Without addressing these belief systems, no amount of financial education will lead to sustainable wealth. 


Unlike a typical financial literacy workshop, this meeting isn't about budgeting tips and saving strategies alone - it's about rewiring limiting beliefs that keep families stuck in survival mode and empowering them to adopt an abundance mindset. 


Family Legacy Meetings change the game by:


  • Creating a safe, open space for families to have honest conversations about money.
  • Helping families rewrite their financial identity - from lack and struggle to prosperity and possibility.
  • Encouraging collective responsibility for wealth-building, rather than leaving it to one or two financially "successful" family members.


The  Family Legacy Meeting defined:


The FLM is a family meeting but so much more. It is preceded by a comprehensive assessment that paints a picture of each family's journey.  Importantly, the assessment explores the family's belief system - the strongest determinant of their generational patterns, including their relationship with poverty. 


The process is adapted from a best practice tool, Family Team Meetings, that originated in New Zealand and is used in the child welfare system to either preserve or reunify families. Michelle Hollinger has revised the process, infusing it with innovation and creativity, incorporating historical educational components, an assessment tool that pinpoints a family’s belief system and powerful success principles that empower families to not only desire generational wealth, but to also understand how they can achieve it. 


Guided by a trained facilitator,  the Family Legacy Meeting takes approximately 90-minutes (more or less, depending on dynamics) and follows very intentional components to  guide family members to deeper awareness of  the belief system guiding their family's financial status. The strength-based, solution-focused approach includes powerful success principles and tools that make it easier for families take ownership of their wealth-building journey.  


Following the family's inaugural FLM, the family participates in a series of monthly meetings, convening to check-in, celebrate their progress and hold themselves accountable for achieving the goals established in the inaugural meeting. 


With enough Black families participating, the Family Legacy Meeting could join the ranks of rich traditions like family reunions. 


Your organization takes the lead on facilitating Family Team Meetings as a part of your engagement with families. The monthly meetings are an excellent tool to help families:


  • Shift from survival mode (just getting by) to thrive mode (building and sustaining wealth.)
  • Identify and dismantle limiting beliefs about money that have been passed down through generations.
  • Develop a family-centered financial vision where everyone has a role in building legacy wealth.
  • Move beyond individual success to collective financial empowerment that benefits the entire family unit. 


Being an integral part of the family's  wealth-building vision also helps your organization understand the family's dynamics, including helping them navigate potential or actual obstacles to reaching their wealth-building goals.  

Generational patterns are woven into the fabric of our lives. But they are not set in stone. Fabric can be unraveled, tears mended, knots untangled. And a new pattern can be tenderly and intentionally begun..."


L. R. Knost

Your organization needs FLM Facilitators

ACT NOW!

Calling progressive, nonconforming community organizations: Is that you?


We know this approach is not for everyone. Traditional one size fits all financial programs won't cut it here. Only progressive, forward thinking organizations willing to challenge the status quo should apply. 


The Institute for Worthy Living is looking for select organizations that are ready to:


  • Disrupt outdated poverty intervention models and embrace empowerment-drive solutions
  • Challenge families to think bigger and dream bolder about their financial futures
  • Implement Family Legacy Meetings as a transformational tool to help families take charge of their wealth-building journey


BRING THIS LIFE-CHANGING CONCEPT TO YOUR ORGANIZATION BY ENROLLING KEY STAFFERS IN THE FAMILY LEGACY MEETING TRAINING


If your organization is ready to truly empower families - not just serve them, you need a certified Family Legacy Meeting Trainer on your staff


Family Legacy Meetings can be integrated into your existing programming and adapted to meet the unique needs of your community


Together, we can shift the narrative from struggle to success, from lack to abundance, from surviving to thriving. 

Become a certified facilitator of The Family Legacy Meeting

LEARN MORE

WHITE PAPERS

SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS

 This white paper explores the correlation between organizations and the clients they serve. It highlights how progressive, mission-focused organizations typically attract clients who are ready to transform their lives and are receptive to the organization's services. It also addresses how organizations with antiquated, ineffective approaches typically attract clients resistant to change. Ultimately, the paper emphasizes the necessity for organizations to lead by example. 

Download PDF

PURPOSE-DRIVEN CONSULTING

FOR PURPOSE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS

At The Institute for Worthy Living, we provide an elevated experience that does far more than assess and advise. With our strength-based, solution-focused approach that cultivates a culture of purpose-driven excellence, we identify stagnating blind spots while shining a spotlight on untapped potential.


We help you and your team develop a harmonized paradigm that keeps your vision front and center while also:


  • Boosting morale
  • Increasing productivity
  • Stabilizing workforce
  • Attracting aligned funders
  • Generating media exposure
  • Developing loyal stakeholders


As Chief Worthiness Officer, Michelle Hollinger helps organizations transform from the inside out by fostering an atmosphere where authenticity, worthiness, and high quality performance flow with intention and integrity.


Our consulting services empower leaders and teams to:


  • Align with their deeper mission by seeing the bigger picture of their work
  • Strengthen workplace worthiness for higher morale, engagement, and retention
  • Address unconscious bias to enhance team dynamics and customer relations
  • Support and develop strong, purpose-driven leadership that inspires excellence
  • Use Reticular Activating System and titration-based strategies to create lasting, sustainable change
  • Make the organization a true extension of its authenticity—one where people feel valued, motivated, and connected to a greater purpose


When people feel seen, empowered, and inspired, they bring their best selves to their work, especially essential for community organizations tasked with helping others to transform their lives. 


Ready to take your organization to the next level?


Contact us today!

The Institute for Worthy Living

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