There are three main programs associated with Starkville Bridges:
(1) Community Training
This educational training helps middle-class participants understand the truths about poverty by giving them insight into poverty and a shared language for which to work with impoverished communities.
(2) The Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin’ by World (Getting Ahead) class
This class takes place once a year for sixteen weeks. Each week, there is a class during one evening that lasts for 2.5 hours. In the class, co-investigators discuss the causes of poverty, the hidden rules of the middle-class and how to build resources.
Building Bridges for Kids (BB4K)
This program is a component of the Getting Ahead class. It was designed by the Maroon Volunteer Center with the assistance of members from the Starkville Bridges Steering Committee. MSU college students are trained to act as volunteer mentors to children between the ages of 3 and 15. These children are from families of the Getting Ahead class co-investigators. The children participate in outdoor activities and are introduced to a curriculum that touches on topics that their parents become familiar with through their experiences in the Getting Ahead class.
(3) The Moving Ahead Master’s Program
This program allies the Getting Ahead class graduates with middle-class community members in an effort to help graduates implement their plans of action created in the Getting Ahead class.