Summary: Jeremiah Program - helping single moms to help their kids

Feb. 13, 2009 

Presenters: Father Michael O'Connell and CEO Gloria Perez of the Jeremiah Program
 

Fr. Michael

(A brief history) 

A committee at St. Mark’s was putting together a childcare program for low-income moms who were going to MCTC. During the day, St. Marks thought they could use their school to do childcare. I was on this early board. We were feeling good that we could provide this really good childcare while the mother was going to school. It seemed like if we could just solve that, the mother could do four semesters and get her career job. The problem was, so many women would starve and drop out of school.

I started to understand there were multiple issues that could go wrong. If one of those things went wrong—if your car didn’t work, if your child got sick, if the person you were living with got violent, if you lost your housing, you name it—if any of those things went wrong, the semester would get sabotaged. That was the learning. 

In Feb. ’92, I went to the State of the City talk. I don’t know if I got the statistic right. What I recall the mayor saying is that in 1990, one in four children born in the city of Minneapolis was born into single parent poverty. And I think you said if nothing changes in the next eight years, it would be one in two children by the year 2000. I had begun to understand the dynamics in those families and that caught my attention. 

I put together a coalition of community partners in the spring of 1992. The partners were education (MCTC, Dunwoody, St. Thomas and Metro State). I began to see those institutions as the largest adult education campus in the country per capita population. Their proximity there was the bridge that was going to get these low-income women and their kids out of poverty. 

There were key constituencies: education, congregations, government, philanthropy, business and neighborhood associations. We formed a board. Those constituencies became the partners that started serious strategic planning in the fall of 1992. From that came our first campus, just kitty corner from the Basilica. We started with 18 units of housing and childcare. It now has grown to 39 units and a state of the art child development center. Now we have one in St. Paul that is virtually a clone of it.  

I took potential donors up in a large construction bucket to look over Hennepin Avenue and see all the educational campuses. I took the CEO of NSP up to the top.  I knew that NSP sponsored affordable housing. I showed him a parking lot that NSP owned that it didn’t use anymore. I said that is where this program should be. He said, “I am a Presbyterian.” I said it didn’t matter. Three weeks later we had that lot, a $500,000 piece of property. On that we went out and raised the dough. 
 

Gloria Perez 

Target population:

• Single mom with children under 5. One of the best pieces of advice we received, you need to focus and target your market. Who has the most critical need that you want to address? Helping single moms was the mission that got us started. If we can get to these single mothers when their children are young, then we can influence their ability to be successful and break the cycle of poverty. That is how we determined children under 5.

• They must have completed a GED or a high school diploma. The fact that they have gotten that far is evidence of some resiliency.
• They must be economically disadvantaged.

 

Core program components: We did focus groups with women at the schools (where they were not having success) and asked what the barriers had been. We learned core components of our program. We heard:

• If I don’t have safe, affordable housing I am not able to continue my education.

• I live in a community where I fear that my children or I will be harmed. I don’t have the peace of mind to dedicate myself to my studies.
• I have this child, this gift, I don’t have a way to provide my child the opportunity I know that child needs.
• I am extremely isolated. I don’t know who to turn to for support. I don’t know how to access services.

We went back to the drawing board. What can Jeremiah do? It provides safety, safe and affordable housing, a community where there isn’t isolation, a sense of trust and mutual respect and a shared vision. In the last 8 years we provided early childhood education, so the children have a good foundation as well. 

Life skills development: The next layer is life skill development and interpersonal skill development. In the last 5 years at least, Jeremiah has partnered with Twin Cities RISE around their empowerment education. Jeremiah has Life Skills classes that are taught on campus one night a week. It is a requirement for participants. The goal is both knowledge acquisition and behavior change. Families are with us 2.5 years, so they have the opportunity to go through that transformation. 

Commitment: All of the women in the program make a commitment to go to college, either vocational training or associate degree program and in some cases a BA. The idea is you can no longer obtain a livable wage job with just a high school diploma. 

Women apply: They apply to Jeremiah as a personal development program. They agree to go to school, to work on life skill development, and invest in their children’s education. In exchange, we provide this supportive community, affordable housing, this early childhood experience and experience to get this livable wage job. It is a daunting process. There are a lot of women who qualify for our program, I would say more than half don’t apply because they are intimidated by that kind of commitment. It comes from a lack of self confidence or self worth or faith that they can achieve this. 
 

Admission process: We do an intake interview. We are looking for resiliency, for motivation, for their willingness to pledge to this process. You have to get up every day and go to school, find a part-time job, take care of your children. There is a lot of work. We explain that successful people are doing those things also. 

Subsidies and rent payment: Women pay one-third of their income to participate. We have market rate apartments and have to cash flow that building. If we wanted to run it as a regular business, it would cost $800 a month for a 2BR and $1,200 for a 3BR unit. We can’t do that. We only charge one-third of income; it is more like $250 a month on average we are getting. We have to fill the gap.   

Early childhood and other services:  Some qualify for county childcare assistance; it was about 50 percent, now fewer are eligible. The rest of the women are being subsidized by Jeremiah.  If we need additional services, such as psychological services, we partner with other organizations. 

Outcomes measured:

• That children are performing at or above their developmental level when they leave. We measure them against national standards.

• With regard to the women, we are measuring attainment of their academic program and measuring their wage. Most don’t work when they come in. They are at 0. We are bringing them to $15 an hour when they graduate. When they are at Jeremiah, we require them to have a part-time job. If they don’t have a job, we try to find them a job in the community.
• We also measure housing stability, the stability in their employment and whether or not their salary increases. We measure graduates at 1, 3 and 5 years out.

From an employment standpoint, 2008 and 2009 are going to be different based on what is happening in the employment market. We are finding that women are having stability in their work, maintaining their $15 an hour target. In 2009, the competition is going to be harder. 

St. Paul initiative: When we developed the additional 21 units in Minneapolis, we had a group of religious leaders in St. Paul and their congregants (representing business and philanthropy) who wanted to do something similar. We went through a feasibility process. If we are going to do it in St. Paul, we need to know that government, business, educational institutions and so forth are committed. We picked a site in Rondo that everybody thought was the location. A site that was owned by a Baptist Church that couldn’t do anything with it; there was prostitution, drug dealing and murders on the site. 

St. Paul hurdles: The initial reaction of the community was, “We don’t want low-income single mothers in the neighborhood. We have enough of them.” It was an educational campaign. “Yes, we know you have low-income single mothers in the neighborhood. Wouldn’t you like a resource for them so they can obtain an education, a livable wage job, so they aren’t stuck in those paths?” Over time, we did win over the community.  

Fr. Michael

Future initiatives

It’s expensive: How do you pay for this deal? It is a big issue. We have 78 apartments between the two cities and a $4 million operating budget. [That comes to $51,282 per family per year.] That money comes from corporations, from foundations, from individuals, and from government. The financial contribution from congregations is small. From government we have got capital and childcare funding. It seems to get smaller. 

Going national: We were getting these feelers from around the country. We were going out piecemeal helping people. We decided we were going to go national. Three years ago, we started monthly meetings of a Growth and Expansion Committee. Long story short, last Wednesday night, the Twin Cities Board met, an historic meeting. It voted itself out of existence. It empowered a national board; Gloria and I are on it. We are a week old. We are that new. Gloria is spending 20 percent this coming year on the effort. We are looking at Fargo Moorhead; we are looking at Austin Texas, possibly Seattle, possibly Boston, and Milwaukee. We know it will take at minimum three years from inception to open. That is what we learned from St. Paul.

Gloria Perez

Ten lessons learned. 

1. To create the kind of transformation we are talking about, it is going to be expensive.

2. Three years from the start of the idea to getting it built. It is going to take time. People need endurance, not a sprint but a marathon.
3. You need a broad constituency group to find the solutions.
4. The solutions need to be personal and they need to take into account, and respect the diversity of the people that they are impacting. It has to do with culture, language and resiliency. If you don’t believe in me, I can’t believe in your.
5. We have to address the root of the issue. For education, it is not just a matter of teaching literacy, which is key. The root of the issue has to do with homelessness. It has to do with safety, drugs and violence in the community.
6. Children need strong role models. They need success.
7. Foundational needs matter for any of us: food, safety and a nurturing community. If mothers or any low-income family is worried about their safety, they can’t nurture that child.
8. Parents need to have a future; they need to have a career path they are working toward. In order to find the path, they need connections. We bring volunteers in. They are connecting with our residents. That matters.
9. The soft skills are critical. The ability to relate and recognize that they are important, valuable, lovable and have something to contribute. They have to know how to connect with other people to be successful.
10. You need to have optimism and hope for kids to be successful. They need to know there is an opportunity for them going forward.

 

Fr. Michael

The Sisterhood: We have Sheroes nights. It is when the staff recognizes women for working above and beyond. The staff will get up and praise these women. The other candidate women, they are busy. They are exhausted. They will come to the shero nights. These other candidates will get up and praise them. It is moving to see these spontaneous gestures of praise. What is the point? We have incredible resources, physical resources, staff and volunteers, budget and board. Where it all comes together is the sisterhood. These women come out of exceedingly isolated life experiences, isolated, unsafe, hopeless and they discover something for the first time in their life—a community of trust .The transformation happens in the power of the sisterhood. It is how they model for each other. That to me is the most exciting part.

Q&A

 

Q: Does Jeremiah pay the school tuition for the participants?

A: Gloria Perez: We do not pay the tuition. They are eligible for Pell grants, in large part. They do take out some loans. We thought long and hard about that. They have to have some skin in the game. They can’t have everything given to them. We have some great state colleges and universities here that are not a huge burden economically. 

Q: Discuss any follow-ups with the families.

A: We have an alumni group for the women who leave Jeremiah. They have quarterly get-togethers. The outcome we monitor for the children is how they are doing academically, their ability to meet the national benchmarks. 

Fr. Michael: We have three look-fors for successes after they’ve graduated: 1) How are you housed? Is it safe? Is it affordable? 2. What is your job? Is it a career job and has it given you opportunities to advance? 3) How is your child doing? 

Q: Once they leave, is there ongoing support?

A: Gloria Perez: In the last 6 months at Jeremiah, we start having conversations about departure. We emphasize the fact that the relationships they have been building are part of their own network and community—their pit crew. That is one of the outcomes they will get, a pit crew. It is not like they are not going to have problems; some have had breast cancer. Some have relapsed to drugs and alcohol. They have a Facebook group. 

Q: Talk about children, the preschool, how you take care of the babies?

A: Gloria Perez: On each campus, we have licensed childcare. They have an early childhood experience from 6 weeks old through preschool. We have four classrooms on each campus: infant, toddler, intermediate age group and preschool. We have licensed, qualified teachers in each classroom, M-F 7 a.m.-6 p.m. They have a full experience focused on cognitive development, literacy, and physical activity. There are parenting classes in the evening. We encourage the women to do complementary activities at home for the kids. 

We do a baseline test when the child enrolls. Every six months we test their growth and development; 90 percent of the children are at or above their developmental level. As in Minnesota, we have noticed there are a high number of children with autism. But I think it is because we are testing for it. We are finding more. We can intervene. 

When the preschoolers come in, we notice a real deficit in the social, emotional capacity, what we consider an attachment disorder. Children are angry and not able to really connect with their caregiver very well. It takes a good year with the program and stability, and then you start to see growth in that social-emotional area. That is the biggest deficit for the children. 

Q: What percentage is federal, state, and municipal funding?

A: 80 percent of our funding comes from private individuals. For 18 units, we have a federal subsidy, a very small percentage.  

Q: What activities to you have to engage the fathers?

A: We do not have activities for the fathers as it relates to the women. Out of 78 families there are probably 20 who have a relationship with the father of the children. Now having that relationship doesn’t always mean it is a healthy relationship. About half of those are healthy, the others are dad is just out of prison, in a halfway house, is abusive, and not a good role model. We typically have not brought dads in, at the request of the women. …  

Q: (Follow-up) You have to recognize that as a resource—otherwise they grow up not recognizing fathers as a resource?

A: We talked a lot about partnering with another group like Catholic Charities that has a father’s group, to make those resources available to men. Our philosophy is that we are focusing in on the moms. 

Q: You have 78 units, is there a scale of the operation that seems to fit right? (You are expanding to other places rather than expanding where you are now.)

A: Our hope as this model spreads nationally is that the philosophy of how business is done and how you create change and transformation will get transferred.  

We also assessed Jeremiah’s market share, the portion of philanthropy that Jeremiah Program can tap in this particular market. While the Minneapolis St. Paul community loves this organization, there are only so many philanthropic resources that are being shared between Jeremiah and other organizations. For us, it didn’t seem feasible to burden that. We are so heavily funded by philanthropy. 

In terms of the size of the community, it was also important to not have campuses larger than 40. Eighteen seemed small and insular; you couldn’t see the results. If one family went south, you really felt it from a staff standpoint, and really wondered if you were doing the right thing. When you have 78 and you have a few families who don’t complete the program, it is not such an emotional drain. 

Q: I had a young woman in my house, she was 26, had a baby, lived in poverty and she had a lot of barriers. I couldn’t get her to look at Jeremiah. I thought what is the difference between the person who can make that step and the person who doesn’t?

Talk a little about that. She survived by being incredibly insular; she doesn’t know how to ask for help.  

A: That is the $1 million question. I think the fear of the unknown for people is huge. It is why we have an issue with racism in this country. People call me and tell me what you just said. She has a lot going on in her head about what it means to be in Jeremiah.  Some don’t’ have the self-confidence or resiliency. If she can start to imagine herself in the program, then she will take the step to apply. She can’t imagine herself in the program until she meets someone in the program and sees that they are like her. It is about community. It is about connection. And how we do that, I don’t quite know. That is our attempt at doing education in the community with teen mothers—so they can start to imagine that this is something that they can thrive at and be successful. 

Q: (Didn’t catch it)

A: The success rate is nearly 50 percent of the women who enter the program graduate and and/or complete their education within 3 years of departure.  

Some stay one or two years. Some don’t want to continue, but they are being successful. They don’t want to continue because it is highly restrictive, controlled environment. They have repaired relationships with a loved one or a partner and decide they want to move out. They stay in touch with us, but then eventually finish their education, but not at Jeremiah. We would consider that part of the success. 

Q: what are your demographics?

A: The majority are women of color, 80 percent. The majority within that are African American, then foreign-born African, such as Somali and Nigerian. We have a small percentage of Southeast Asian and Hispanic and Native women, a small percentage. The majority of children are children of color, even among Caucasian women. 

Q: How about the ones who do finish the program?

A: The target is the $15 an hour wage. That is what we are saying is the success. What we see is that one year after the program, their earnings are greater than when they left. Women who haven’t completed the program, they have flat earnings and/or typically cycle back out of control. 

We don’t allow women to come back into the program once they leave. They all know it is one opportunity. Grounds for termination of the program are the inability to go to school or work consistently. That is usually related to a mental illness that they are not able or willing to get under control, or violation of one of the basic rules. We have a zero tolerance for violence on campus, a zero tolerance for bringing guests in. The safety component is such a big part of the program.  

Q: Are suburban churches in interfaith fashion big donors or concerned constituencies? The suburbs are where there is rapid job growth, but not much penetration for affordable housing. Comment on that.

A: In Minneapolis, since we have been around for 10 years, we have a greater penetration of support. We have groups from Eden Prairie, Chaska, Edina, Wayzata and Minnetonka supporting Jeremiah through their congregations. We have a 35-member board of trustees, most of who don’t live in the inner city. They have connections at work. 

We would like to see more volunteers; part of the transformation that happens is that relationship building. Residents interact with suburban volunteers. Realize the volunteer is a woman who grew up on a farm and didn’t’ have the resources that our resident thought she was born with, it starts to break down barriers of classism and racism. 

Regarding jobs, when women leave Jeremiah, it is all about affordability. They are living in the inner city of the first-ring suburbs. I would say that the down side for any of them moving into those communities is, are there people who look like me and when I am there, how do I feel? Am I valued and supported? 

Q: You are presenting to the achievement gap committee, you are anti-poverty and you are crime prevention, and you are creating economic opportunity. You do a lot of different things. Have you thought about ways to monetize the back end of what you are doing to pay for the front end?

A: It is something that we have thought about. Our childcare centers are open to private payers; we do have some educators from MCTC and staff. It doesn’t cover the gap. We want to explore that more. It has to be part of the funding diversity. 

Fr. Michael: As for the congregational role, I may have given the impression they are not an important constituency. They were fundamentally important in the beginning. They are sources of volunteers. 

Q: Do you have orientation for people with interest in volunteering?

A: Gloria Perez: Regular open houses are listed on our website. Opportunities include rocking babies in our infant room to reading to any of the classrooms. Volunteers make a six-month commitment to lead the Life Skills group. Those volunteers have a resource list of other volunteers who want to do one-time presentations on a particular topic, relationship development or parenting. 

Q: How did you get connected to Twin Cities Rise and what do they do?

A: Steve Rothschild founded Twin Cities Rise and one of his partners in crime was Bill Svrluga, who was on our founding board. The first group we admitted to Jeremiah, nearly everyone washed out. We thought we need a better way to prepare women to enter the program. Rise had developed this empowerment training program, which is cognitive restructuring. It helps people change the way they view themselves in relation to the world. It helps them start to understand that everyone is born with core value, they are important, they are lovable and valuable and when you operate from that frame of mind there are very different outcomes. We have women go through the empowerment training as part of the preadmission process. We purchase those services from Twin Cities Rise. It also trained all of our staff in empowerment. 

Q: How do you track the school success of children?

A: We don’t have a large enough cohort to be able to ask a school system to pull those kids records individually. They are all over. The women themselves are providing us with that data so we can track that children are progressing. We had our first 13-year-old come back to Jeremiah to volunteer with her mother as part of her service requirement for school.