This book illustrates that poverty in America is not a
waiting room but a mountain to scale, and no one reaches the summit alone. In Together
We Climb, policy leader Steven C. Taylor and CrossPurpose founder Jason
Janz, both shaped by childhoods on the economic edge, confront a staggering
paradox: the wealthiest country in the world cannot pull its people out of
poverty. How can one understand that the country spends $1.75 trillion a year
making poverty survivable yet hardly escapable, while 139 million Americans
struggle at the base? Through compelling stories like hard-won lessons from
Denver's neighborhoods and Tiffany's, a single mother penalized by benefit
cliffs for daring to work overtime, the authors chart the ascent from crisis to
stability, from skills to quality work to ownership. Their conviction is
bracing: the American Dream can still be restored, but only when businesses, communities,
and government each climb in their own lane.
What elevates this book is how well it marries heart and
architecture. Taylor and Janz reject both pity and bootstrap mythology,
championing agency, dignity, and the power of connection. They show how economic
capital may start the climb, but relational and spiritual capital finish it.
Their Mountain Model and Navigation formula of proximity, possibility, and
pathway offer real handles: a Trail Pass for locating one’s role on the
mountain, blueprints for alliances that knit fragmented services into coherent
journeys, wage data, and case studies stretching from Denver to Dallas. The writing
is exquisite, with rigorous research and raw human moments that make dense
policy personal; the four-step fishing metaphor alone reframes decades of stale
debate. Mayors, pastors, CEOs, philanthropists, and everyday neighbors will
find a distinct summons here, and employers will recognize their untapped power
as engines of mobility. Arriving as America marks its 250th year, the message is
timely. The mountain has humbled millions, but this book dares us to climb it
together. A book that argues poverty can be defeated, then shows exactly how.