ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 6, 1996 TAG: 9612060040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
THE COLLEGE PROGRAM helps mothers living in public housing overcome obstacles such as lack of transportation and child care.
They are 14 women, most of them single parents, all of them residents of Roanoke's public housing developments.
The youngest is 19, the oldest 37. Most of them work - if not full time, then part time.
They also share the desire to improve their lives through education.
In September, the 14 women enrolled in Virginia Western Community College classes through a new program, a joint venture of the college and the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
But their classes were not held on the campus in Southwest Roanoke. The program - called UMPH for Upward Mobility Through Public Housing - brought the college to them, in a familiar environment: a public housing development.
Twice a week during the semester that ended this week, the 14 women - all public housing tenants - took two Virginia Western courses in a training room at Lansdowne public housing development in Northwest Roanoke.
Some of the women had tried college before but dropped out when interest waned or money ran out. Some hadn't been in a classroom in 10 or more years.
Some feared a public housing resident wouldn't fit in on a college campus.
But at Lansdowne, "I could be myself, and it was OK. It was accepted," said student Dawn Brown, a resident of Hunt Manor in Northwest Roanoke. "Nobody tried to change for anybody. There were no judgments, no criticisms."
Anita Lee, resident development director for the housing authority, said starting college can be a little scary for anyone.
But for these 14 women, "it's almost like a lifestyle they haven't been used to," Lee said. "If you're used to getting up and going to work, life has a certain amount of structure. But if you've been home raising children and all of a sudden you find you need to further your education so you can work, that's really frightening."
Add obstacles such as lack of transportation and child care, and "it can just be overwhelming," Lee said.
Shawanda Gibson has been on her own since her mother died in 1986. Gibson was 15 at the time. She went her way and her brother went his, she said.
Gibson worked while attending William Byrd High School in Vinton. She graduated early "so I could get out and really work," she said.
In the years that followed, she had two children, a daughter, 6, and a son,1.
"I always wanted to go to college," said Gibson, 27, who lives in Bluestone Manor in Northeast Roanoke.
"But I didn't have any money or knowledge about financial aid. And I've been out of school 10 years."
The chance to start Virginia Western classes - at a public housing development, with child care and transportation provided, and tuition covered by federal financial aid for low-income students - was too good to pass up, Gibson said.
The adjustment has been hard, piling college on top of raising two children and holding a part-time job as a telemarketer, she said.
"It's taken some toll, but I'd say it's worth it," she said.
The housing authority mission statement for years has included a passage on self-sufficiency - specifically, providing residents with programs and resources that encourage self-sufficiency.
Through partnerships with other organizations and institutions, the authority has offered classes for Graduate Equivalency Diplomas (GED), day care provider training, and college scholarships to residents. The authority has had to form partnerships because it has no resources to do so on its own, Lee said.
The authority approached Virginia Western this year after identifying several residents who were interested in improving their education, said Ron Coleman, director of continuing education at Virginia Western.
This semester, the 14 women took two courses - keyboarding and "College Survival," which helps students learn how to study, how to use the library and what's expected of them in college.
Next semester, courses in psychology and computer literacy will be offered at Lansdowne. Virginia Western is considering offering the keyboarding and survival courses again next semester to another group of residents, Coleman said.
The courses are credited and count if residents choose to start attending classes on the Virginia Western campus, as some have.
"The only difference between courses offered there and those offered on campus is the location," Coleman said.
This semester's courses were taught by two Fifth District Employment and Training Consortium staffers - Grace Pullen, an instructor/counselor, and Kathy Harris, an executive secretary.
"This has been a great experience for me as well as a positive experience for these students," Pullen said. "Part of my job is to motivate them. But they motivate me as well. They motivate me by being concerned for each other. They serve as great support to one another."
One student was physically abused the night before class, Pullen said. Her face was bruised and swollen, and she didn't want to come to class.
"One of the other students went over to see about her and said 'You're going,''' Pullen said. "So instead of just sitting at home, she came to class. She was able to focus on other things."
Student Vida Harris, a 24-year-old who lives in Bluestone Manor, lost her job early in the semester.
"That night I had cooked dinner, and my son asked me 'Where's the meat?''' she said. "It ripped me. I came to class and tried to put on my shell. And I broke down and cried."
Harris' classmates chipped in and bought her groceries. One loaned her $20. Another withdrew $50 for her from a savings account.
"I was able to make it until my financial situation improved," Harris said.
A food services major and mother of a 5-year-old son, Harris refuses to resort to the nation's dwindling welfare system. She sees education as her way out of poverty. And if the education is free, "all I have to give in return is my time and presence. That's priceless," she said.
"True enough, it's hard right now; my son and I are not spending time together like we should. But the payoff is what I'm looking at.
"There's barbed wire in front of me now. But the payoff - the green grass, the white picket fence - I can see that above what I'm traveling through now."
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff. 1. Sarah Sayles practices her typingby CNBbefore taking the skills test Thursday morning at the Roanoke
Redevelopment and Housing Authority. 2. Instructor Grace Pullen
(right) serves pizza to Vida Harris at a luncheon to honor the first
group of residents to enter the Upward Mobility Through Public
Housing program. color.