BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
FARRAH MAFFAI staff Eve Holliday (l-r), program assistant, Robin Vogel, program coordinator, and Mary Ann O’Brien, counselor, run the Displaced Homemaker program for Brookdale Community College in West Keansburg. One of the challenges facing displaced homemakers is learning new job skills that are the key to emotional and economic self-sufficiency.
”There are 750,000 displaced homemakers in New Jersey, and their main need is job skills, also job openings with benefits,” explained Robin Vogel, coordinator of the Displaced Homemaker Program based at the Bayshore Higher Education Center in West Keansburg.
A state-funded outreach of Brookdale Community College, the Displaced Homemaker Program serves individuals who have lost their primary source of income due to divorce, separation, death or disability of a spouse.
Program clients need to acquire or upgrade skills that will allow them to transition into the workforce and ensure self-sufficiency for themselves and their families.
Services are provided free under the program, which is funded through the N.J. Department of Community Affairs Division on Women. The Brookdale program is one of 16 centers in the state that comprise the Displaced Homemaker Network.
Statistics supplied by the network show that while 11 percent of all U.S. families live in poverty, that figure rises to 42 percent for displaced homemakers. Also, 83 percent of displaced homemakers are unemployed or employed only part time, and 84 percent live in households where the annual income, including child support, is less than $25,000.
Vogel said that over the past 22 years, close to 3,000 people have been through BCC’s Displaced Homemaker Program, which began in 1982.
In addition to Vogel, the staff includes Eve Holliday, Navesink, program assistant; Louise Bull, Matawan, computer instructor; and Mary Ann O’Brien, Old Bridge, intake counselor.
The program provides 150 hours of computer instruction, and Bull teaches women who have no computer skills how to use the Internet and e-mail and to use programs like Microsoft Windows.
“It’s bringing them up-to-date in terms of their skills. Everyone uses computers today,” Bull explained. “Because they lack computer skills, they can’t get into the job market.”
But learning to use a computer is about more than employability, she noted.
“Part of it also is a lack of self-esteem,” explained Bull, who is a consultant to the program. ”They don’t have the skills other people have. It is about job skills, but it’s also about self-esteem and confidence.”
“Some have been home taking care of families for many years,” explained Vogel. “Now they have to go out into the workforce.”
“It gives them an instant support system,” added Holliday. “Other women are going through the same thing.”
“Everybody’s coming in with different circumstances in their life,” Bull observed. “They walk into class, and I can see from their body language — they sit far away from the computer, the expression on their faces, they’re afraid they won’t be able to learn.”
“We go to the first class to cheer them on,” said Holliday. “I always say, ‘This is going to be so much more than a computer class.’ ”
“After the training, they feel so empowered,” Bull said. “They say, ‘If I was able to master this, I can do other things in my life.’ ”
She is a witness to the ripple effect of skills training on the lives of displaced homemakers.
“I’ve had women come back to me who’ve moved out of bad relationships to good ones because this class gives them the confidence to move on. Some people say they have a better relationship with their kids because they can talk to them about computers. Suddenly, they’re showing their kids how to do things. Even going back to school to get a degree. It’s like a stepping stone,” Bull said.
“It’s life training,” added O’Brien, “and success is manifested in different ways. Some get jobs.”
A retired special education teacher in the Hazlet school system, O’Brien joined the program after surviving breast cancer and the breakup of her marriage of 37 years.
“After two years of sitting at home, Eve told me the program had lost a full-time counselor,” said O’Brien, who joined the program in August 2003 as an intake counselor helping “women who don’t know where they’re going to go.”
“We’ve had plenty of women who think they’re not going to survive and don’t want to, some highly educated but out of the workforce for years,” she said.
O’Brien travels between BCC campuses in Long Branch, Asbury Park, Freehold Township and Lincroft to counsel clients.
“I listen to them. They’ve never had anybody just listen to them. I’m hearing what their life is like. A lot of them are verbally abused. They think they’re not capable of doing anything because they’ve been told they aren’t. I talk to them and tell them what the program has to offer,” said O’Brien.
“It’s not for everybody. Some of them just need a support group, some need skills to get into the workforce. Some have college credits and need direction. We refer them to financial aid, housing help, rehab. We’re helping them to see a direction, to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” O’Brien said.
“We also run a support group for clients at the Lincroft campus,” said Holliday. “When you’re in a support group, you realize you’re not the only one in the world and you can start to move forward.”
Participants in the program range from age 22 to early 60s. Most are divorced or widowed.
“We don’t have a qualifying guideline,” explained Vogel. “We have clients from welfare to wealthy.”
Referrals come through BCC, attorneys, therapists, social workers, churches, support groups and agencies like 180 Turning Lives Around, she said.
“We see about 120 new people each year and continue to work with about 60-70 from the previous year,” Vogel said. It’s open-ended; people can always come back if they lose jobs, need training, advice or advocacy.
“It’s not a cookie-cutter program at all,” she added, noting that the program is unique to each client’s needs.
“We make referrals for services they need: clothing, housing, food, medical. The aim is to help them become emotionally and financially self-sufficient,” she said.
“Plus, we listen to their stories, support and encourage them, and let them know when they’re having a problem, they can call us.”
Job skills training isn’t limited to computer training, but includes interview skills, résumé writing, and job search. Workshops are offered on diverse areas that speak to the needs of displaced homemakers, such as financial management, assertiveness training. legal issues, and career decision making, Vogel said.
“We help them identify what career they want and how to achieve it, the educational and vocational training they need, how to apply for financial aid and grants,” she said.
Vogel said attaining self-sufficiency is difficult for displaced homemakers.
”Entry-level jobs will pay $8-11 per hour, not enough to live on, so they have to work two jobs. If they go to school, they have to work. It’s amazing how hard they struggle to better themselves. Sometimes it takes them years to accomplish self-sufficiency,” she said. “Clients come back for years.”
Bull recalled one student whose story is typical of clients of the program.
“She was a nurse working the night shift at a hospital in New York City, and she would come right after the shift,” she said. “She had no computer skills, so she couldn’t advance in her profession. She also had a language problem.”
“She also needed support,” added Vogel.
“She learned how to do spreadsheets, fliers,” Bull said. “She was no longer intimidated. That’s key, because she felt she could take the next step and continue to learn. I tell them this class isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning.”
For information on the Displaced Homemaker Program, contact Vogel at (732) 495-4496 or e-mail her at rvogel@brookdale.cc.nj.us.