Growing the COPE Network Through Partnership
One of the things we love most about the COPE Facilitator Certification is that it never feels like a one-way training.
Every quarter, new facilitators from across the country join us in the COPE Classroom to learn the why, what, and how of leading the Cost of Poverty Experience in their communities. They learn the mechanics of COPE, how to facilitate meaningful conversations, and how to create an experience that helps participants better understand the realities of poverty.
But while we are teaching, we are also learning.
That's the beauty of a national network.
Today, the COPE Network includes nearly 60 organizations and more than 100 certified facilitators. Each person brings a different perspective, a different community, and a different story. Every cohort expands our understanding of what is possible when people come together with a shared commitment to creating opportunities for others to thrive.
This spring, that spirit was especially evident.
A Partnership Rooted in Shared Values
About a year ago, we had the opportunity to facilitate a COPE experience with the Stand Together Foundation. As we worked alongside their team, conversations quickly moved beyond a single event. We began exploring a bigger question:
What could happen if COPE became a tool that organizations across the Stand Together network could use to deepen understanding, strengthen relationships, and advance solutions rooted in human dignity?
It was a natural fit.
Stand Together Foundation invests in and supports organizations that are working from the ground up—organizations that believe people are more than their challenges and that lasting change happens when individuals and communities are empowered to lead their own transformation.
Those values resonate deeply with the purpose of COPE.
Over the past year, Think Tank and Stand Together have continued cultivating a partnership focused on promoting, funding, and championing COPE across the Foundation's network of Nonprofit Catalysts and partners. This spring, that partnership reached an important milestone.
Fourteen New Facilitators, Countless Future Conversations
Fourteen leaders completed the COPE Facilitator Certification and became equipped to bring the experience back to their organizations and communities.
Representing organizations from across the country, these leaders came from:
The certification culminated with an in-person COPE experience bringing together both Catalyst organizations and Stand Together Foundation staff.
As always, the simulation itself was powerful. Participants stepped into the challenges, trade-offs, and impossible decisions that many families face every day. Conversations during the debrief reflected empathy, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of the barriers that sometimes remain invisible.
Looking Beyond the Experience
But what made this experience memorable wasn't only what happened in the room.
It was recognizing what happens next.
Each facilitator will return to a different community. Some work with families experiencing housing instability. Others support parents, youth, students, entrepreneurs, or individuals working toward economic mobility.
Their missions may differ, but they share a common belief: people already possess strengths, potential, and aspirations. Real change happens when systems, organizations, and communities learn to recognize and build upon them.
The impact of fourteen newly certified facilitators extends far beyond fourteen individuals. It reaches the staff they will train, the volunteers they will engage, the community leaders they will influence, and the thousands of participants who will experience COPE in the years ahead.
The Power of Networks
We often say that COPE is about shifting narratives.
This cohort reminded us that narrative change doesn't happen through a single event. It happens through relationships. Through partnerships. Through networks of people who are willing to learn from one another and work together toward a future where every person is seen, valued, and equipped to thrive.
To the Stand Together Foundation team and every member of this cohort: thank you.
Thank you for your partnership, your curiosity, and your commitment to helping communities rethink poverty and create pathways for lasting change.
We cannot wait to see where you lead COPE next.