By Paula Day

Her name is Gloria. She is a single parent raising two daughters, ages 11 and seven. Before January, she was a statistic.

She had come to Atlanta in October and become one of the estimated 10,000 area homeless. She and her family had found space in St. Bartholomew’s Family Shelter at night, and during the day, school and a part-time housekeeping job gave them meager security.

Enter Angel Peavy and members of Holy Spirit parish’s St. Vincent de Paul conference with a plan. Called Project Independence, the idea was to find a concrete way to address homelessness, according to Holy Spirit’s pastor, Father Edward Dillon.

“If one family could be gotten out of a shelter and helped to get their feet on the ground, then we’ve broken the cycle of poverty in their case,” Father Dillon explained.

Gloria is now living in an apartment, has completed six month’s job training, is in the process of getting her GED (General Education Diploma) and is looking for employment. Her children completed the school year and will return to classes in the fall. They have made friends and “overall, like it here,” Gloria said. “They’re happy, and to see them happy, makes me happy, because we did go through some pretty bad times before we came here.”

Last summer, after reading an article on conditions in Atlanta’s housing projects, Holy Spirit parishioner Angel Peavy approached Father Dillon about finding ways to help. It was decided to focus on assisting homeless families and that the St. Vincent de Paul conference could be the administrative tool.

“We wanted to be closely involved with the family,” Mrs. Peavy recalled.

Careful thought and preparation went into planning for Project Independence. One stipulation was that the family be one that could benefit from the assistance. Conference members recognized they did not have the expertise to help those with long-term, ingrained problems, such as drug addiction or alcohol abuse.

A contract was drawn up defining the relationship. Holy Spirit, through its St. Vincent de Paul Conference, would provide a furnished apartment, pay the rent and utilities, and be supportive with other necessities. The adult family member would agree to attend job training classes every day to gain skills that would help him or her become gainfully employed, would do everything necessary to benefit from the schooling, would see that children attend school, would avoid drug use and alcohol abuse, would put $25 into a savings account each month and would get prior consent for anyone else to move into the apartment.

Angel Peavy and Marilyn Cates, president of the conference, approached Martha Evens, director of St. Bartholomew’s Family Shelter, and relied on her and her staff to choose an appropriate family.

Gloria and her two children had come from Oregon to Atlanta in early October, 1988, fleeing an abusive situation. She has a sister here and had lived in Atlanta herself from the age of five until she was 17.

“I came to Georgia to keep my family together,” she explained. “The shelter had its ups and downs. We had a place to sleep, to take a bath. It was our home at the time.”

Reluctant to complain about a difficult situation, Gloria told how the family shared the shelter with five other families. Each family had a small room with mattresses, blankets, pillows, shelves and a chest. The rooms are partitioned off by pleated plastic curtains. The families share a bathing facility and a washer and dryer.

“The room wasn’t very big, but it was our space,” Gloria pointed out. “It was a night shelter, so in the day we had to be out on our own. There had to be rules whether you liked it or not. During the week the kids were at school and I’d take off and go to work. On weekends my sister would take us to her house.”

“If one family (in the shelter) got sick, sooner or later everybody got sick. The overall problem was not enough privacy and also getting along with the other people there. I felt very grateful to be there because we weren’t out on the street with no place to go and nothing to eat.”

“Before I heard about Project Independence I felt really low,” she recalled. “My ex-husband had called and wanted custody of the children. I was just about to give them to him, I felt so low. ‘Here I am, a single mother taking care of two children. What am I going to do?’ I wondered.”

“This (the offer from Holy Spirit) came up, and I told him, about it. He agreed to go along with it but wanted to be sure I took care of the girls.”

After an evaluation certifying she needed job training, Gloria enrolled in a six-month course at CITE, the Center for Innovative Training and Education, located in downtown Atlanta.

The privately owned and operated facility contracts with the federal Job Training Agency for teaching students such skills as computer literacy, typing, ten-key operation and also gives them academic help toward passing GED exams.

The program provides a stipend which pays for lunch, transportation and gives vouchers for child care. Gloria completed the course at the end of June, and is now job hunting so she can become self-supporting.

Jane Bourdier, also a Holy Spirit parishioner, began tutoring her twice a week in early May in preparation for taking the GED.

“She’s very anxious to learn,” Mrs. Bourdier said. “It’s been a positive experience for her. She was lost – frustrated at first. If she applies herself, she can do it.”

“If I pass this GED I’ll be the happiest person in the world,” Gloria remarked. “I left school at the end of the 10^th grade. I was at that age where I didn’t care anymore. Yes, getting this GED means a lot to me. I’ll be very happy.”

By the second week in July, Gloria had taken all but the GED writing exam. It will be six weeks before she learns the results.

Gloria is not the only winner coming out of Project Independence. Marilyn Cates, president of Holy Spirit’s St. Vincent de Paul Conference, said the project has “energized others to become involved in St. Vincent de Paul.”

Collections have consistently increased from $400 to around $2,000 a month. New members have joined the conference, which continues to provide emergency assistance, take care of an indigent family and assist the Society’s central office with hardship cases. The conference is now looking for another family, according to Angel Peavy, to assist through Project Independence.

“We feel we’ve been successful with the first one and want to continue. We can tell we’ve made a difference in her life. It’s real important,” she added, “that the person you get really wants to do this.”

“It’s had a practical and spiritual benefit for the parish,” Father Dillon pointed out. “You realize how blessed you are. You realize the conditions others have to live under.”