
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997           TAG: 9702270446

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   95 lines

PARENTS LEARN SKILLS AS SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS

Curtis Long hadn't found financial stability in truck driving. Or in installing vending machines for soda companies or in restocking shelves on the midnight shift at a local warehouse.

The single father of two had been unemployed for two months when he heard about a unique job-training program last October. The program, Parents are Our Partners , works through the Division of Social Services, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and - of all places - his oldest son's school, Ruffner Middle.

Operation P.O.P. brings parents into the school as volunteers for various jobs and teaches them skills that, hopefully, will make them prime hires.

It worked for Long, who was hired as a security monitor at Ruffner in late January.

``After being unemployed, I decided this might be the time to try to go into the school system,'' the 27-year-old said. ``I was so good with kids and I like kids. . . I had always wanted to work for the school system.''

The program pulls in parents from Calvert Square, Roberts Village, Tidewater Gardens, Young Terrace and Diggs Town public housing communities to volunteer as security monitors, food-service workers and computer and teaching assistants.

The volunteers work varying hours until the end of the school year. They can apply for vacancies within the school system or take their skills elsewhere.

Long received security training and had been working at the school for about two months when he applied for a vacant security position at Ruffner. He was considered and then hired.

``It's important that they get the experience,'' said Layne Dyer, a parent advocate with NRHA and one of the liaisons with the P.O.P. program.

``We're hoping positions will become available within the system and that they'll be considered. If not, we can help them get other jobs, write them letters of recommendation.''

Ruffner principal Pamela Hoffler-Riddick developed the idea and took it to Social Services and NRHA representatives last year to help some of her Ruffner parents adjust to changes in welfare guidelines.

Many public housing residents are now required to perform community service or get job training and Hoffler-Riddick saw Ruffner as a convenient and willing outlet.

``If welfare is going to have these requirements, why not volunteer in an environment constantly looking for skilled workers?,'' she said.

The program has other benefits: It increases parental involvement in the school and has mended fences with many Tidewater Garden sneighbors.

``For one reason or another, many said they didn't feel welcome into the school,'' Hoffler-Riddick said. ``But now many of our P.O.P. volunteers are becoming beacons going back into the community. It's just really, really great.''

Hoffler-Riddick and Dyer said the cooperative arrangement between the city and the school system is working well. The school is now classified as an official work experience site through Social Services and the division and NRHA can assign residents there for training or volunteering.

The housing authority provided a $5,000 grant, which has helped buy equipment such as a computer printer for mailings and bus tickets for volunteers and paid for training for those in the program.

While the program was first designed for parents of Ruffner students, it now includes residents in the five public housing communities.

The school now has 10 to 15 volunteers who do clerical work in the office and help in the classroom or the cafeteria.

With Long being hired so soon in the program, Dyer considers the program successful but wants to increase participation.

``Some of the parents come in and think of it as volunteering and because of that, they haven't been here consistently,'' Dyer said.

``We're trying to train them to let them know they have to be consistent. .

Tonya Adams, 27, had been looking for a different type of job training when Long told her about P.O.P. ``Job training is difficult,'' Adams said. ``A lot of them give you the run around, you go through job training for a year and you're still unemployed.''

Adams said she realizes that P.O.P. doesn't guarantee her a job but she believes that working as a computer assistant at Ruffner, which is known for its technological capabilities, will be a great plus for her resume.

She is also a parent recruiter for P.O.P., taking over the job Long held briefly to try to pull other parents into the program.

``Some people get discouraged when they hear the word `volunteer','' Adams said. ``They want to get paid. But I tell them, `you have to start somewhere.' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Curtis Long, with his 11-year-old son Curtis in the atrium of

Ruffner Middle School, has taken part in a job-training program

called Parents are Our Partners. The program allows parents to

volunteer in the school while gaining valuable skills for the work

force and gets the adults more involved in the school. Participants

can apply for vacancies in the school system or take their skills

elsewhere.

Graphic TO LEARN MORE

For more information about the P.O.P. program, call Wilbert Lewis at

441-2614 or Layne Dyer at 623-1111, ext. 334. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK PUBLIC SCHOOLS VOLUNTEER PROGRAM