The New Norm in Poverty-Ending Solutions
The Challenge
Poverty in America isn’t just about income, it’s about barriers.
More than 37 million people in the U.S. live in poverty. For many, escaping it isn’t just hard, it feels impossible. Countless barriers stand in their way: medical debt, lack of childcare, unstable housing, unreliable transportation, and the emotional toll of constant uncertainty.
And the system designed to help them? It's just as overwhelming.
Families must navigate more than 90 federal programs, each with different goals, rules, and requirements. It’s a system designed for services, not for people. As a result, many individuals fall through the cracks, support remains short-term and fragmented, and cycles of poverty continue generation after generation.
The Solution
Ending Poverty Through Research-Backed, Client-Led Solutions
Padua is a research-backed, client-led approach to ending poverty that empowers people to achieve personal and economic stability and reach their bigger, brighter futures.
Why Padua?
Padua is revolutionary in its individualized, evidence-based approach to ending poverty.
Free from time-bound, transactional case management, Padua believes that our clients are the experts in their own lives and utilizes personalized, judgment-free methods to end a person’s poverty, for good.
Whether our clients’ goals are landing a job or completing their education, our two-person teams meet clients where they’re at, walking alongside them to provide emotional and resource support every step of the way.
Padua equips people in poverty with the tools they need to plan for the future and cope with the unexpected. In doing so, our clients experience improved financial well-being, health and wellness.
Relentless Commitment
We walk alongside our clients without judgment and without time limits — staying committed for as long as it takes to help them achieve their goals and end their poverty for good.
Proven Solutions
We deliver research-backed, evidence-based approaches validated through rigorous internal evaluation and external research to ensure our work truly changes lives.
Human Dignity
We believe every person deserves respect, agency, and the opportunity to build a life free from poverty and full of possibility.
Fearless Innovation
We challenge the status quo, adapt when needed, and take thoughtful risks to create better, more effective solutions to end poverty.
Research and Results
Padua is administered by highly skilled Navigators, who work with clients in two-person teams. These Navigators are clinically trained and are experts at utilizing clients’ unique skills to achieve their dreams of a life free from poverty. By utilizing continuous education and the latest clinically informed techniques, these Navigators are at the forefront of this cutting edge and revolutionary form of case management.
Developed by Catholic Charities Fort Worth and rigorously tested via Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) administered by the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities, Padua is proven to increase earnings, employment and overall wellbeing.
The Padua Effect
Higher Employment
Those offered Padua services are 25 percent more likely to report being employed full-time than their peers.
Higher Earnings
Unemployed individuals offered Padua services earn, on average, 46 percent more than unemployed individuals offered traditional case management services.
Increased Stable Housing
Unstably housed individuals offered Pauda are 64 percent more likely to have stable housing 24 months after service.
Less Credit Card Debt
Those offered Padua services experience a sharp decline in credit card debt that persists over time compared to peers.
Better Health
Those offered Padua services are 53 percent more likely to rate their health as having improved or stayed “Excellent” after program completion.
Ready to become a Padua® Mission Site?
Join a network of organizations that transform lives through a research-backed, client-led approach that propels families toward their Bigger, Brighter Futures.
Our Story
Padua began with a simple but powerful question:
What if the way we’ve always addressed poverty isn’t the way it has to be?
What if...
clients set their own goals?
programs were built around people, not timelines?
we could prove, through research, that ending poverty was truly possible?
2014 - 2015
Rethinking Case Management
Created by Catholic Charities Fort Worth, Padua set out to challenge traditional models that were time-bound, transactional, and often disconnected from the real lives of people experiencing poverty.
Instead, Padua was designed around three core principles:
- Research-Backed Solutions
- Client-Led Journeys
- Poverty-Ending Outcomes
From the start, the goal was simple — create a model that truly works and can be shared with others.
2015 - 2023
Proving What Works
In 2015, Catholic Charities Fort Worth partnered with the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities to rigorously evaluate Padua through a Randomized Controlled Trial.
The results were clear:
- Increased employment and earnings
- Greater housing stability
- Improved health and well-being
Padua wasn’t just a new idea — it was a proven solution.
2023 - 2025
From One Community to a National Movement
After helping hundreds of individuals and families achieve personal and economic stability in North Texas, Padua reached a turning point.
If this approach could transform lives locally, it could do the same across the country.
Today, Padua is expanding through mission-driven organizations committed to bringing research-backed, client-led poverty-ending solutions to their communities.
TODAY
Looking Ahead
From rural towns to major cities, Padua has the potential to become the new norm in how we approach poverty — empowering people to build Bigger, Brighter Futures for themselves and their families.
And this is only the beginning.
Real Results. Real Futures.
Lisa
“With Padua’s support, I found stability, first with a job and then with a home. But Padua was more than just finding a job and a house; it was about rebuilding my confidence and dreams. I rediscovered my passion for event planning and catering, something I’d always loved but never pursued as a career. With Padua’s encouragement, I enrolled in culinary arts training and began building my own business.”
Jasmine
“Padua helped me find a home and paid my rent a couple of times to help me be able to save. I probably saved almost $10,000 in a year. It lasted a long time because I was adding my paycheck on top of what I already saved. And I’ve never in my life been able to do that, like never. This is the nicest place I’ve ever lived in my life. And it’s mine. And everything in it is mine. And that’s huge to me.”
Amelia
“Without Padua, we would still be stuck in a cycle of renting and living paycheck to paycheck... Now, my husband makes $27 an hour and manages his own crew, I was promoted to Supervisor at CVS, we’ve almost paid off our truck and we have a home.”
Bring Padua to Your Community
Fill out the form below to connect directly with Padua National and discuss how you can bring Padua to your Community.