Escaping poverty is difficult unless a family is surrounded by caring individuals willing to help. Church-based family mentoring teams provide loving and encouraging support to help families make important life decisions.

Cornerstone has identified four successful family mentoring methodologies, as practiced by New Focus National, National Jobs Partnership, Stand in the Gap, and Faith Partners.

New Focus National

Led by the nationally acclaimed New Focus National team from Michigan, Tulsa's churches are training their members to develop long-term relationsal ministry teams to help families make life-changing decisions to leave the welfare system and poverty behind. The training prepares 5-person teams from each church to develop a system that coordinates volunteers, resources, benevolence funds, and relationships.

The structured materials provided by New Focus teach churches how to implement the following steps: referral, intake, one-time home visits, care plan commitments, and family-volunteer support team matches. The materials also include the courses Steps to Change (6 weeks), Steps to Financial Freedom (12 weeks), and Compassion Circle (1 year).