Show Single parents find help in in support group Kathryn Jones The Globe Pam Denicke Coordinator of Student Express is passionate about the Single Parent Network that began with witha a bang in November of last year She believes it was no accident that the work begun in Turning Point a peer leader leadership hip program for single parents eventually brought her to the place she is today The Single Parent Network is a group of students faculty and staff interested in increasing increasing increasing ing awareness at of single single single sin sin- gle parent needs and linking single ingle parent students to both campus and community re resources Denicke said quoting quoting quoting ing the new o mission statement by heart Single Parent Network programs are designed to address single parent parent parent par par- ent students' students needs and to help students make connections with one another With their first event scheduled scheduled scheduled sched sched- last November Denicke and her committee members without even a budget began brainstorming what they wanted wanted wanted want want- ed to accomplish I had people telling me if I had 15 or 20 people that I should be happy with that Denicke said about the open house Single Parent Cont on Page 3 Single Parent Cont from front i Denicke and her crew had 64 attendees It was way too exciting Denicke said It was so great to see single parent students get together and networking with other students Quite often as single parents we live in crisis mode its it's hard to see that there are other people experiencing the same thing Denicke believes that the needs assessment survey which was available at the has already begun to pave the way for successful future events The survey was anonymous and questions on the survey surrounded surrounded surrounded sur sur- rounded childcare transportation tion and scholarships to name a few After the results were taken the workshops began In December a class on reducing holiday stress wasn't very well attended but in January 23 single parents attended the evening class Daycare was provided by the Eccles Child Development Lab for parents with children 2 12 years old Denicke is excited for the workshop coming up on Feb 22 and 28 Were going to talk about how to balance everything ng like home school work kids she said The first workshop y i l iii Juggling school work kids you you will be held at the South City Campus on Feb 22 from 2 1230 pm p.m. The second will be beheld beheld beheld held on Feb 28 at the Redwood Campus from 6 pm p.m. Denicke who also teaches LE 1350 Values and Self image states that if not for the opportunity opportunity opportunity to attend graduate school the idea for the Single Parent Network might never have arrived For her project she researched across the nation how other colleges were answering answering answering answer answer- ing welfare reform for their single single single sin sin- gle parent students and andes designed es and created this single parent program said Denicke Denicke's professor and advisor advisor advisor sor for the project suggested that she needed to take her idea into the something community-something she said she was glad to do When the Social Research Institute at the University of Utah got the commission for a study on long term welfare recipients Denicke applied and got the jobI job I traveled all allover over Utah interviewing interviewing interviewing inter inter- viewing she said I found out how this welfare reform was affecting peoples people's lives And what I discovered was that many single parents dont don't have high school diplomas or And to me I just know that education or some kind of training training training train train- ing is the only way out of poverty ty said Denicke Still it took me just about a year before I could share my myA A asses VI t r Tai b br idea she said One night as Denicke was driving driving driving dri dri- ving home from class it struck her that she wasn't doing what shed she'd been teaching the class a class that was often struggling with goal setting and writing the goals down on paper She wasn't following her dreams Soon thereafter she spoke with Janet Felker Dean of Student Planning Support I told her about my research project I told her how the program program program pro pro- gram had helped me personally as a single parent and that I wanted to see this happen at the college Denicke said The rest is history she said suggesting that if theres there's one thing Ive I've learned from being a single parent and going to school its it's who I am I know what I can do The Resource Wallboard located in the Student Involvement Center at Redwood Campus provides scholarship applications community community community com com- resources and other information relating to single parents Pam Denicke can be reached at |