THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410190142
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
The Regional Women's Center at Tidewater Community College seemed too good to be true to Adrianne Hall.
The new empowerment program, started one year ago, is designed to provide financial and personal support to women attending the college. Hall is a student in TCC's environmental protection program.
Headquartered on the Portsmouth campus in Suffolk but serving all the TCC campuses, the women's center targets single parents; displaced homemakers; single, pregnant women; and women trying to enter non-traditional career fields.
Hall certainly qualified.
The 33-year-old Portsmouth mother of five had been separated for four years before her husband died a little over a year ago. She owed more than $5,000 on government education loans. Unfortunately, the school she had been attending in Wilmington, Del., closed and the job the school referred her to in Hampton Roads had not worked out.
Hall enrolled in an apprentice program at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, but that program closed down, too.
``I was in a real pickle,'' she said.
She wanted to stay in school and enter an expanding career field where she too could grow. The Regional Women's Center offered help, but Hall was skeptical.
``It was new a year ago, and I didn't want to be a guinea pig for something that might not work.''
Finally, Hall decided to give the center a try and says she has not regretted it.
``They paid my tuition for two semesters and worked out a reasonable payment on my student loan,'' and she also attends weekly support group sessions, a requirement of all women's center participants.
``Listening to their problems, I know somebody is having something worse than I am,'' she said. ``But it really helps my get-up-and-go when someone says, `Don't give up.' ''
The women's center was initiated with two gender-equity grants from the Virginia State Department of Education. TCC hopes to expand the program beyond gender-equity issues to serve all women in the college as well as men who might also be single parents.
So far one man, Arnold Greiber of Virginia Beach, has joined the center. Greiber, 51, has a bachelor's degree in business but has experienced several layoffs due to corporate takeovers and downsizing. Unemployed and unable to find a full-time job, Greiber also enrolled in the two-year environmental protection course.
``I hope for a career in environmental enforcement - a young, growing industry,'' he said.
Although he acknowledges getting some strange looks in the beginning as the center's lone male, Greiber has continued in the support group on the Virginia Beach campus.
``It was extremely uncomfortable for a while,'' he said. ``But I could identify with their problems, especially with kids.'' Greiber has two teenage sons.
Seventy-six people, mostly single parents, are registered with the Regional Women's Center, according to director Mary Pat Liggio.
``We are in a growth phase, trying to reach out to other women,'' she said. ``So we can help pay tuition for even one course and get them going.''
``There are a lot of people out there who can go a long way on a little help,'' said TCC student Hope Brewer.
Last spring, when Brewer decided to go back to school, she was shocked at the cost. The 38-year-old Portsmouth resident works in a medical office and wanted to take a course in medical terminology. Separated for several years, the mother of three is self-supporting but could not afford the tuition.
The Regional Women's Center helped Brewer not only with the tuition for her first course at TCC, but also reinforced her goal of self-sufficiency.
``There is nobody in the picture to take care of Hope but Hope,'' she said. ``I want to make sure that I can do that, and make sure my boys get the education they need.''
The center also counsels women who have interrupted their educations and want to get back into school. MEMO: For more information on the Regional Women's Center at TCC, call
484-2121, extensions 470 or 471.
WORKSHOPS
Upcoming workshops sponsored by the TCC Regional Women's Center and
open to the public:
``Women's Career Workshop'' will focus on traditional and
non-traditional careers including environmental protection and
construction.
Nov. 5, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
TCC Norfolk center, Room 3, 252 Monticello Ave.
``When Love Goes Wrong: How To Recognize an Abusive Relationship, and
What About the Kids?'' - led by Candace Feathers, family-violence
service coordinator, Virginia Beach Department of Social Services
Nov. 9, noon to 2 p.m.
Portsmouth Campus (in Suffolk), Bay 5, conference room (former book
store location)
This article also appeared in Portsmouth Currents on Friday, October
21, 1994. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
``With attention being focused on welfare reform, this program makes
sense in that its whole purpose is to help women become more
self-sufficient,'' says Mary Pat Liggio, director of the TCC
Regional Women's Center.
by CNB