PLACE FOR DISPLACED HOMEMAKERS

By Roslyn Talerico

Ohio, like the rest of the country, has an increasing. rate of divorce. One out of three marriages ends in divorce, and one of every five divorces occurs between couples whose partners are over forty years old. As a result of the increasing divorce rate, marital separations, death of spouse, and other life changes that cut off or diminish past financial resources, more women find themselves needing to enter the job market-some after a long absence, others for the first time.

The Cuyahoga Community College Displaced Homemakers' Program is the result of legislation passed by the Ohio General Assembly,, It is a new program for homemakers who are over 35 years old, who have worked without pay as homemakers for their families and who have lost their source of income due to death, divorce or other circumstances, The College Pilot Program began operating in March of 1978.

The three College Displaced Homemakers' Centers provide services to help clients become “job ready" and self-supporting. Regular College programs as well as specially designed educational and training experiences are available to clients. The Centers provide counseling, vocational exploration and testing, educational and training experiences for personal development and improving opportunities for successful employment, and guided job searches.

Many women have considered homemaking their primary occupation, yet in their middle years have found themselves displaced from their family roles and left without any source of financial security because of divorce, death of spouse or other loss of family income. Homemakers, an unrecognized and unpaid part of the national workforce, contribute to the welfare and economic stability of society. But they receive no health, retirement or unemployment benefits as a result of their labor. Women believed that by working as homemakers, they would be taken care of financially. But when they need to support themselves, they find they are ill-prepared to do so. When they seek paid employment, they are often subject to discrimination because of age, sex, and lack of any recent work experience. They are often left without any source of income. They find themselves ineligible for Social Security benefits because they are too young or divorced from the family wage-carner. They are ineligible for federal well'are assistance because their children are grown or they are not physically disabled. They find that they are ineligible for unemployment insurance because they have been engaged in unpaid labor in the home. In 1975 in California, Laurie Shields and Tish Sommers initiated a plan to make state and federal legislators aware of the problems of middle-aged and older women who, like themselves, are suddenly thrust unprepared into the labor market after years of homemaking. Their goal was to establish “onestop" comprehensive service centers to provide health care, legal services, counseling, employment and training. The model developed at Cuyahoga Community College approaches their concept of a multipurpose center.

Ohio, in late 1977, selected Cuyahoga Community Coffee, a multi-campus two-year college in the ur ban Cleveland area, as the site for its pilot multipurpose center for displaced homemakers. Project EVE, a vocational counseling and referral service for wonien, was established in 1966, New Directions for Women was established in 1974 as a demonstration program to provide education and counseling for women who are solely responsible for maintaining home and family,

The Ohio legislation defines a displaced homemaker as an individual who is 35 years age or older; has worked without pay for his or her family: is not painfully employed and has had or would be

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likely to have difficulty in securing employment; and has either been deprived of the support of a person on whom he or she was dependent, or has become ineligible for public assistance as the parent of a needy child.

Establishing the Program within a community college offers many advantages. The displaced homemakers become students, and thus eligible for a wide range of College supportive services including

testing, financial aid, developmental education, tutoring, counseling, health clinics, childcare and placement assistance as well as academic and carcer programs. The Program also benefits from indirect College services: i.e.. payroll and accounting; research and evaluation; public relations; rent and utilities; legal counsel; personnel and educational resources; and an efficient and attractive educational plant.

The Cuyahoga Community College District serves its 1.5 million residents on three casily accessible campuses. Each campus houses a Displaced Homemakers' Center. Each Center is stuffed by a Displaced Homemaker Advisor, a part-time secretary/intake interviewer and displaced homemaker clerical interns. The three Centers are a part of the College's programs for women, WomenFocus.

WomenFocus is an educational program designed to meet the unique needs and interests of women who want to lead more self-fulfilling and self-sufficient lives. It offers opportunities for personal growth, carcer exploration and development, consumer and special interest education through non-credit offerings and counseling.

WomenFocus assists adult women in the community to explore their roles, to look at their options, to set goals, to make decisions for themselves and to learn how to attain their goals. Many of its programs, such as assertiveness training, home and auto maintenance, divorce support groups, money management, non-traditional jobs for women, math anxiety and secretarial skills update, are especially helpful for displaced homemakers. The State funding enables WomenFocus to target special services at no cost to displaced homemakers who often cannot afford to pay fees.

Displaced Homemakers are encouraged through the program's community outreach and information activities to inquire at one of the three Centers about services. Intake interviewers will schedule them to come to one of the Centers to complete the intake application. Client eligibility for program and financial assistance may be determined from the completed questionnaire. Before leaving the Center, the client is scheduled for an orientation meeting.

Orientation inectings, scheduled at least once cach month at each of the three Campus Centers, are conducted by the Displaced Homemaker Advisors. During the two-day meeting, twelve to fifteen applicants will learn what to expect from the Program and will

have an opportunity to share some of their fears, needs and hopes for the future in a supportive setting.

Participants are encouraged to apply for admission to the College which ensures their eligibility for the College's student support services, ie, health services which are equipped to provide nursing and medical diagnostic and therapeutic services; psychological services; developmental education centers which offer study skills and reading improvement courses and tutoring; academic counseling; college libraries; financial aid offices; and placement of fices which assist clients when they are ready to find employment.

The following assessment tests are administered:

The Self-Directed Search by J.L. Holland

Self-scored test to assist participants to begin to evaluate their personal interests in relation to the world of work. The test is interpreted in a group setting, encouraging the sharing of fears, hopes and plans for the future.

Work Values Inventory by D.E. Super

Valucs clarification test which relates personal values to the world of work.

College English and Math placement tests which provide the Displaced Homemaker Advisor with some information about the current academic skills of her clients.

Participants are assisted in appiying for federal and state financial aid for college, and receive information about emergency, welfare, employment, legal and other assistance provided by private and public agencies.

After attending the orientation meeting, clients have a good understanding of whether the Program can benefit them and of how they can work within it. They have spent two days working with their Advisor and have begun the life planning process. The Advisor will schedule counseling appointments with clients who need immediate assistance. Program clients are enrolled in the non-credit course Planning Your Career and in The Job Search if they plan to seek immediate employment.

The Planning Your Career course offers an opportunity for a group experience in career and life planning. It provides a detailed examination of students' strengths, values, interests and needs as they relate to their career decisions, and teaches skills for making satisfying and realistic career choices. The course consists of six sessions and meets once a week.

A special workshop program to assist clients to cope with their new roles is offered. The program consists of six-workshops which coincide in time with the Planning Your Career course so that participants can come to the Campus during the morning for the course and remain for an afternoon workshop.

The series includes six of the following workshops: Managing Stress

You As the Family Business Manager Social Skills

Menopause, Fact and Fiction Managing Your Legal Problems Looking Your Best on a Limited Income Managing the Time of Your Life Job-Seeking and Job-Keeping Developing Your Total Image

Getting What You Want: Community Resources That Care and Help

Clients are encouraged to enroll in non-credit programs offered by WomenFocus. Applicants who are incligible for the Displaced Homemakers' Program because of age, marital status or because they are