Renee Beasley, 33, a mother of two, is just beginning to believe that poverty can be defeated and people never should let it keep them from moving ahead.
”I got off on the wrong start in life-that was my biggest thing,” says Beasley, who was on public aid for 12 years before joining Women for Economic Security (WES), a coalition of low-income women determined to escape poverty`s grip.
The coalition offers workshops, classes and committees to get low-income women involved in welfare policy through meetings with legislators and top public aid officials. The group also provides child care, transportation, a meal or a stipend for some activities.
”Our whole philosophy is that you can tell your story better than we can,” says Eddye Owens, Women for Economic Security`s coordinator. ”You can tell them how it is to live on $250 a month, that food stamps don`t buy your soap and toilet paper.”
The 200-member organization is a division of the Chicago Area Project, a state-funded social service agency known as CAP. The group has five chapters in Chicago and the suburbs and receives money from state and private grants.
The group helps women such as Beasley identify and remove the barriers to success.
”It was depression and low self-esteem,” Beasley says of the barriers she faced. ”I ended up getting pregnant (again)-it was like repeating the same cycle.
”For a while I went to school and had a few jobs, but they were seasonal and I got laid off. . . . I felt like I wasn`t qualified to do the things I`d set out to do.”
It`s a familiar story. With two mouths to feed, Beasley traded her chance at a fulfilling career for a less-than-fulfilling welfare check. But no one told her the monthly welfare check wouldn`t even pay her rent. No one told her it is hard for a single parent who cannot afford day care to hold a full-time job and raise two school-age daughters. And until January, when she enrolled in Women for Economic Security`s Life Skills pre-employment training course, no one told her she could overcome these obstacles with determination and initiative.
”It`s like the world is a room, and you`re in the corner of it,” Owens says. ”If you try to move out one inch, someone`s there to slap you back. Year after year, women just stayed in that corner.”
The economic security coalition gives welfare women a chance to come out of that corner and look at their lives in a more positive light. Besides Life Skills and local chapter meetings, members can:
– Lobby legislators as part of the Policy Team, an advocacy group that goes to Springfield periodically to see politicians and top public aid officials.
– Share life stories with women of different races, religions and economic backgrounds through Creating Bridges, a committee of affluent and low-income women who meet monthly and who periodically sponsor a Welfare Simulation game for large groups.
– Change and review policy through Working Together, a committee of public aid recipients and Illinois Department of Public Aid staffers who discuss how the system is working and suggest improvements.
”We`ve been able to see some good results come out of that,” Owens says of the Working Together meetings. Increased monitoring of local public aid offices has produced shorter waiting lines and simpler application forms-”
just some little things that are really changing,” she says.
”(Their) perspective has been invaluable,” says Joe Antolin, planning and community outreach administrator for the state public aid department.
Women for Economic Security is the only community group to form such a committee with the department, he says. ”Until you have been through the system and lived in it, you can`t really know what it`s about.”
The Policy Team also has made an impact on decisionmakers.
”We just want people to be able to speak up for themselves,” Owens says.
Since the team has traveled to Springfield, Owens says, the public aid department has approved day-care services for some welfare mothers and has ceased sanctions on welfare recipients who do not participate in its eight-week JobSearch program.
But some Policy Team members say they don`t think the meetings with legislators have made much difference.
”We got asked a few things, but after a while they really forgot the poor people were even there,” says Thelma Brown, a member of the team. ”They make you think the way it turned out was the way you wanted it to be, but it wasn`t.”
Even so, Owens says the policy change regarding JobSearch was a big victory for Women for Economic Security because it is useless, she says, to look for a job if you have few or no skills, the case with many welfare recipients, especially women.
A 1987 CAP survey of welfare women established that 69 percent had no job training. That`s where Life Skills helps. The course allows women to build self-esteem, develop a career plan and learn about non-traditional jobs such as construction work and computer repair, jobs that pay more.
So far 75 women have completed the course, which offers placement services, a six-week writing course, computer literacy training and a
”confidence club” support group for its graduates.
Another important component of Women for Economic Security is local chapters in three public housing projects (Robert Taylor Homes, Wentworth Gardens and Dearborn Homes), in southeast Chicago and in south suburban Robbins. The meetings involve problem-solving sessions and presentations to teach members about the Illinois Department of Public Aid`s policies and how to deal with the agency effectively, Owens says.
”People are beginning to really check their local offices,” she says.
”We encourage people to file appeals and read and keep copies of everything they send.”
Owens says she knows first-hand the frustration of welfare women; she had to rely on public aid in 1970 to help support her family after her husband was laid off.
”That was our last resort,” Owens says. ”It was something we never entertained the idea of doing. I got a $30 food voucher from public aid. I was ashamed to go to the store and spend that voucher, but I had three kids and one on the way. My family was hungry, so I did.”
She stayed on public aid only a few months, but Owens says the experience helps her relate to the people she met when she came to work at the Chicago Area Project in 1984. Owens originally was coordinator of CAP`s welfare-to-work program. Women for Economic Security grew out of that program in August 1987 when some participants in the survey of welfare women decided they wanted to do something more to keep the issue alive.
”What came out (in the survey) was that people had this feeling of worthlessness,” Owens says.
”When we first started (WES), it was just a major talking together and getting the feeling we`re not alone.” Then, in April 1988, Women for Economic Security and other community and women`s groups sponsored the Woman in a Mirror Conference to study the welfare-to-work issue.
Since, the coalition has provided more opportunities for women to talk about the issue. Its conference on non-traditional women`s jobs attracted 400.
Having a forum for women who share the same problems and frustrations is the best thing about being a Women for Economic Security member, says Brown, 29, who has been with the organization for about 18 months as a member of Working Together and the Policy Team.
”It was like building family relationships with people you never knew before,” she says.
Brown learned about Women for Economic Security`s Life Skills course through another agency: ”I got over here in Robert Taylor Homes. I was frustrated. I had nobody to help me. I wanted to go to school. I wanted my kids to go to school.” The course ”showed me that if I want something, I have to risk everything to get it. . . . I basically was thinking about myself, but now I`ve learned I have to think about others also.”
For Brown, the risk paid off. She received her last welfare check in February after being hired as a Women for Economic Security community worker. ”I didn`t really think it was going to work. I`ve been in all kinds of programs, but you really don`t expect them to do something for you. I attribute all (my success) to being in the program. If I`d never enrolled in the program and applied myself, then I could have never become a community worker.”
