When the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative was announced, it promised to involve members of the community in the process toward reducing poverty. But that led to misconceptions about the initiative's mission. A few years ago, Isabelle Bartter was invited to join a working group with RMAPI. From the beginning, one of the main goals of RMAPI was to include people living in poverty who could speak personally about barriers to economic independence in Rochester. Bartter grew up poor, and is