By Kyle Winslow
At the University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees meeting in July, an attempt was made to pacify the needs of poverty-stricken women in Louisville.
Project Women, an organization driven to disseminate hope amongst single mothers, has collaborated with U of L to provide single mothers with housing, and support them on their road to obtaining a baccalaureate degree. The goal of this partnership is long-term systemic change through the employment of families through education.
Once accepted into the Project Women program, families are provided with an apartment based on their family’s size. The collaboration with U of L has provided land to be leased where construction will take place for new housing units and a Child Development Center.
U of L President Dr. James Ramsey said the focus of the program is to “encourage these individuals to continue their education and to provide them a convenient, affordable place to live that provides child care so that they may attend class, study, etc.” adding, the hope is to “expand the day care opportunities beyond the mothers who will be living in the residence.”
Supplementary to bestowing housing and daycare to these women, Project Women also gives promise and optimism to the mothers.
Each resident is required to spend two hours each month with Jaslyn Suel, the academic advisor, and another two hours per month with Jocelyn Fetalver, case worker and graduate of the Kent School of Social Work. Suel helps each of the mothers with any problems they are having in school and in selecting their course load. Fetalver, on the other hand, is very familiar with the personal lives of each of the participants and talks to them about their individual cases each month.
Olearia Scoggins, a junior psychology major and participant of the program, is very thankful for its benefits. Scroggins gave birth to her son when she was 14 years old, afterwards she moved around a little bit, eventually finding her way to Project Women.
“The program is very encouraging for someone that isn’t the traditional student,” said Scoggins. She emphasized the importance of talking to the advisers. “Speaking with my advisers is very helpful when my workload gets heavy and I have a lot of things on my mind.” said Scoggins.
Project Women helps take away some of the stress that comes with being a young single mother. Cathe Dykstra, executive director of Project Women, believes the removal of this stress is very important in order to build the women up and help them obtain their degree.
“We want them to focus on their education so they can have the education that leads to career track employment,” Dykstra said. As far as teaming with U of L, Dykstra said, “The founders of Project Women knew that through collaboration, we would accomplish much more than any one organization can accomplish on its own.”
According to Dykstra, the new facility will provide 56 apartments containing two or three bedrooms to house the families. Computer labs, indoor and outdoor play areas and community meeting rooms are included within the facilities as well.
In addition, the facility will also have a Child Development Center, which will serve 250 children age six weeks to 12 years old. This new Development Center will be 17,000 square feet inside and will have a 10,000 square foot outdoor playground. “The Child Development Center will provide a state of the art facility for children to begin and continue their early education,” said Dykstra.
Dykstra affirmed her elation for the program. “The most rewarding aspect of this project for me has been the collaboration with the University of Louisville to better serve our stakeholders and the community at large.” said Dykstra. She mentioned how Dr. Ralph Fitzpatrick, associate vice president for external affairs, led a large task force this past summer to identify ways for U of L to support the students at Project Women. It would also provide opportunities for U of L students to be involved in the facility and the expanding program.
“The University of Louisville has been recognized as a national leader for linking their resources with the community through partnerships and Project Women is proud to partner with U of L to serve our students, our families and our community.” said Dykstra.
Dykstra said the site consists of three addresses, one at 420 W. Lee St., another at 1705 South Fifth St. and the other one at 1721 S. Fifth St. The Child Development Center will be on the corner of Fifth and Bloom Street.
