Together We Climb
Changing How America Understands Poverty
In Together We Climb, Jason Janz and Dr. Steven Taylor bring together lived experience, research, and community-powered solutions to reframe the national conversation and offer a bold, actionable model for restoring economic mobility in America.
Release: October 2026
Pre-order today!
A New Path Out of Poverty
Poverty exists in every single one of these 3,144 counties in the US
Poverty is the number one problem in America—and Together We Climb offers the path for every person to have a chance to achieve the American dream of economic mobility and stability.
This book is based on people’s lived experiences: the barriers that keep people stuck in poverty, and the community-first solutions to help them break free.
The Framework That’s Changing the Conversation
This book presents two new frameworks that reshape how we understand and address poverty.
The Mountain Model
Breaks down the climb out of poverty into four distinct stages people face, sectors and roles that play a part, and why each stage requires different support.
The Navigation Approach
How individuals, organizations, communities, and systems each play a unique role in understanding the mountain and helping people continue the climb.
The Mountain Model
Our proven framework for poverty alleviation, the Mountain Model, recognizes that the journey out of poverty is steep and filled with obstacles. To fully achieve the American dream of economic empowerment, it’s not enough to simply give a man a fish or even teach a man to fish. We must equip people with a fishing pole: a good job with a living-wage and potential for growth on a career path.
But the climb doesn’t end there. The ultimate goal is to own the whole pond. True economic mobility and agency starts when people move beyond earning an income to building wealth through assets like home ownership, savings, or investments. Then, and only then, can families expand opportunities and build wealth for future generations.
The Navigation Approach
The Mountain Model shows us where people are, but people need guides who know the terrain and who believe the summit is possible. The Navigation Approach outlines the shared responsibility of individuals, organizations, communities, and even systems to help someone take the next step and keep climbing.
Personal
Be a Guide for One Person
Organizational
Build Navigation into Your Niche
Community
Link Your Local Network
Systemic
Clear the Path for Climbers
No One Climbs Alone
We believe in the power of Navigation Alliances, where participants across sectors work together to help others climb up the whole mountain.
Climbers are doing their part to show up and do the work. Their alliance may include a person opening doors to their network, an organization meeting a vital need, a funder helping scale the work, or policymakers clearing the path.
Breaking down fragmentation and silos allows the climbers and navigators to see beyond their own terrain to understand the landscape.
Imagine Your City as a Navigational Alliance.
We’ve developed resources to support leaders at every scale, whether workshops on embedding navigation in your organization, tools for creating climber-centric alliances, or facilitation training leading whole-system co-creation.
If you’re ready to talk about moving from vision to implementation, send us a message to get started.
Meet the Leaders Behind the Movement
Together We Climb is led by two voices who have lived, studied, and worked on opposite sides of poverty yet found deep alignment in their shared mission.
Jason Janz
