ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 23, 1996 TAG: 9612230101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Good Neighbors Fund
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
One day, when Joe Barnes was a teen-ager, his cousin asked him to do her hair. He didn't want to at first, but she insisted. After he'd finished, he realized he'd found something he enjoyed doing.
So when he got out of the Army in 1973, he headed straight for the Virginia Hair Academy. He took classes for four years, and soon was working around Roanoke as a hairdresser.
In 1985, he was offered a job at a barbershop in Blacksburg. After five years there, he decided he wanted to come home to Roanoke.
Barnes thought he would pick up where he left off with his old customers, but he found that most of them had moved. He was unable to re-establish himself in his profession.
Since then, he has been more or less homeless. He lives with friends, paying them rent when he can.
In 1990, he came to Roanoke Area Ministries day shelter for a hot meal. Although he now has a part-time job in the nutrition services department at the Salem Veterans Administration Medical Center, he still comes back for lunch.
"If I can, I come every day," he said.
His pay would be enough to live on, Barnes said, but half of it goes toward child support for his son, so he hasn't been able to get ahead financially.
Besides the hot meal, he enjoys the warmth and encouragement of RAM's staff. With their help, he has enrolled in Virginia Western Community College. He qualified for a Pell grant, which pays for his classes, and he hopes to earn a bachelor's degree in dietetics.
Before he started working at the VA, RAM's caseworkers helped with his job search by giving him bus passes so he could go to interviews. Some of the passes were paid for with money from the Good Neighbors Fund, which is sponsored by The Roanoke Times.
Barnes is hoping for big changes in his life next year. His son will turn 18, and the child support payments will stop. He also is trying to get a full-time job at the VA.
Although working part time is financially difficult, Barnes wants to stay on at the hospital rather than look for full-time work elsewhere. His time there will be added to his years in military service, and will increase his retirement benefits.
In the meantime, the part-time work allows him to continue his education.
"I just know that if you have some kind of a degree, you can move upward and get a better position," he said.
Checks made payable to the Good Neighbors Fund should be mailed to The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
Names - but not donation amounts - of contributing businesses, individuals and organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed in the newspaper.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB