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Every Tuesday night, about a dozen low income parents – many of them homeless - gather at Boyd Elementary School in central Springfield to take part in a program called “Hope Project.” KSMU’s Matt Evans has more.
It’s almost 5 o’clock. In the school’s cafeteria, a family gathers around a bucket of fried chicken, picking for their favorite pieces. The mother is wearing a red Kansas City Chiefs t-shirt with blue jeans and worn out tennis shoes. Her dark-blonde hair is pulled back into a pony tail. She watches as her son loses interest in the food when his eyes catch a couple of boys playing tag.
This is an event that several parents look forward to every Tuesday night. It’s a meeting that unites families who are facing homelessness. After their meal of fried chicken, cole slaw, and jello, the children go play while the parents make their way down the hall and into the library. This is where the real learning begins. This group is spearheaded by the director of early childhood services at the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, Dana Carroll.
Carroll has been the brains behind the “Hope Project.” Melissa Haddow is the executive director of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks.
“Dana was trying to find a way to help teach these parents some basic parenting skills for the homeless population that are different than just the average parenting class that you might go to, for example. And found that there really was not a curriculum out there.”
Through a grant from St. John’s Force for Good, Carroll was able to create that curriculum.
Fredericka has been attending the parenting classes for almost a year. She stayed at the Missouri Hotel, a homeless shelter, with her three daughters after she was laid off from a major credit card company in Atlanta. She says she appreciates how the class is handled.
“She let everybody state their opinion on how they think parenting is. And you can take a little bit from each one of them.”
Fredericka is now working at a supermarket and going to school to become a nurse.
Carroll says most conventional parenting classes are very structured. She says the key to her class is open conversation.
“I had a goal. I had some things I wanted to cover. I put the topic out there and then I let them go.”
She’s seen a lot of changes in parenting styles with some of the attendees: they almost always try her suggestions.
Many of the parents say they believe the parenting class is more than a class: it’s a support group.
“We kind of feed off of each other.”
That’s Meghan, the mother of a 5-year-old blonde-headed girl.
“And it’s really nice to have other parents and to know you’re not alone and you’re not by yourself in what you’re going through.”
Meghan used to spank her daughter, but now believes it is wrong. She says the support of her peers in this group has helped her become a better parent.
“I’m a single parent and I’m by myself so I get so frustrated sometimes because I am at my last resort going to pull my hair out and don’t know what I’m going to do with her. And it’s nice to be able to call these people here and know they’re behind me.”
Meghan was laid off and lost her home. While she was on the waiting list for the Missouri Hotel, she lived in her van. Isabelle’s House took her daughter until Meghan was in the shelter.
Most of the parents in the class have spent some time in the Missouri Hotel. Parents who stay there are required to take parenting classes. Carroll thought she would only have these parents in her class for as long as the hotel required, but she found they kept coming back. Claudia, a mother of three, immigrated to the United States from Germany four years ago.
“It’s just so good that we still come here even though we don’t have to come anymore.”
The parents continue to stick around after the class to talk with Carroll even more.
“I have become close to a lot of the families. Certainly, there are like extended family to me.”
And they see her in the same light. One expecting mother was actually scheduled to have her labor induced during one of the Tuesday evening classes and she asked Carroll to move the class time up so she could attend the class and then go deliver her baby. Carroll not only moved the class time - she personally drove the expecting mother to the hospital.
When asked how long the classes will continue, Carroll says she’s uncertain.
“I don’t know. Funding has run out and I’m at the mercy of my boss and benefactors who are trying to find money for it to continue.”
Carroll says the Community Partnership spends over $100 a week on food for the group. Melissa Haddow plans to continue the program, as long as the organization can.
“Although we are out of funding, we are going to continue until we find funding. How do you tell these people no? You can’t do that.”
If these parents have their way, this close-knit parenting group will continue to produce better parents, whether the money is there or not.
For KSMU News, I’m Matt Evans.
