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Business Wire March 2, 2000 Single Mothers Get New Lives and Hopes With Innovative Housing, Education Program. Feature/City Editors SAN PEDRO, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- March 2, 2000 Getting single mothers off welfare or out of dead-end jobs is a tough situation that can't be legislated away and hasn't disappeared despite a booming economy. But an innovative, no-nonsense program that combines low-cost housing with mandatory education is creating success stories that show the problem can be solved -- one person at a time. Pamela Henson, a 27 -year-old former crack addict who spent three years living in a junkyard, is now working at a mortgage company and raising her two-year-old son. She's planning to go to college. "I was tired of feeling hurt and degraded. I was tired of people telling me I was no good and telling myself I was no good, " she recalled. "The A.
L. L. program helped me pull myself together and make a future for myself. I feel like I have my own little counseling center there. " A.
L. L. , which stands for Accelerated Learning and Living, is run by Harbor Interfaith Shelter, a non-profit agency dedicated to helping the homeless. The program offers low-cost housing and other self-improvement workshops to those who attend school and demonstrate a real desire to change their circumstances. "We make sure they are motivated, that they " re focused on acquiring skills that can support their family and that they can be responsible for taking care of an apartment, " explained A. L. L. Director This Hayslet. "We " re really coaches -- cheering them on to realize their dreams -- but they can't do that while they " re worrying about how they " re going to pay the rent and feed their kids. " The 18 -month A.
L. L. program has graduated 12 single parents in the last two years, four of them moving off the welfare rolls and the others dramatically improving their earning power. Another group, overwhelmingly single mothers, is headed for new lives in the year ahead. The cornerstone of A. L.
L. is a 24 -unit transitional housing complex purchased by Harbor Interfaith through a Port Of Los Angeles grant that provides low-rent apartments to those in the program so they can focus on acquiring the education that will allow them to become fully independent. Additional operating funds and support for education, emergency needs and childcare come from a HUD grant. "The Number One reason for homelessness, according to the National Council of Mayors, is the lack of affordable housing. Even working two or three minimum-wage jobs, some people are always on the edge of being evicted, " said Mary Gimenez-Caulder, Executive Director of Harbor Interfaith for the past five and a-half years. "If we really want to get people off the street, we have to equip them to earn a decent income.
So we offer reduced rent for a temporary period and we help our residents with tuition and books, and with workshops that teach them how to get ahead and stay ahead once they " re on their own. Our concentration is providing the opportunity for them to have the career or skills that generate a decent income. " Another A. L. L. graduate, Sandra Rivers, acquired computer literacy that meant she could rise above the $ 9 -an-hour job that had her staying in her car. "I had worked for a company in Chicago for 15 years, so I knew how to work, but I just didn't have the skills to get ahead in Southern California, " she said. "Harbor Interfaith rented me an apartment for $ 400 a month.
I felt safe again. I worked part-time at L. A. Unified (School District) and completed the Level One Teaching Certification through UCLA Extension. I took business and English and tried to learn as much as I could.
That's when doors started opening for me. " Sandra had a number of job offers, but decided to work as a Harbor Interfaith case manager helping others in her former situation. She has continued her education and plans to get her college degree. "I think I can do anything now, " she said. "But I have to have that degree. I've been chipping away at it, picking at it, and I'll get it. That's part of the dream Harbor Interfaith helped me realize. " Both Pamela Henson and Sandra Rivers were well-motivated but aren't isolated cases, Gimenez-Caulder noted, citing the impressive record of success A. L. L.
has achieved. "Education and training is the real way to welfare reform, but you have to put a roof over someone's head first. Once our single moms know they and their children are in a stable and safe environment, they really blossom. We " ve seen it time and again, so we know what the ingredients for success are, and we know it can be repeated elsewhere. "
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