by Amy Graves
“I got off welfare. So can you.”
To some, this statement might seem impossible.
It is not. Just ask Carole Sasaki.
Sasaki is the founder and President of Helping Ourselves Means Education (HOME). HOME is a “communication channel whose purpose is to inspire individuals to seek a way out of poverty that is beneficial to both the individual and society.”
Sasaki, a former welfare mother and seventh grade drop-out, failed the high school equivalency exam twice before passing it and getting into Washington State University, where she received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree.
By using a newsletter, she sends out information from her home, the media, meetings and videotapes, Sasaki is trying to spread the concept of HOME. Also by using this concept, Community Councils are formed.
“The Community Council organizes groups to help women help themselves and organizes councils to get these women into schools,” Jean Stow, director of Public Relations, said. “Stow, Elisabeth Shaw, Georgia McFaul and Kathy Jordan, are TC’s representatives for the Texarkana Council.”
Other members include representatives from ETSU-T, several welfare agencies in the area and the Red River Business and Professional Women’s Club.
In “What is HOME?” Sasaki, the major goals of HOME are listed as follows: “To inspire individuals to seek a way out of poverty, through education and related means.”
“To change the attitudes of the American public toward assistance recipients and other low income individuals, by communicating more objective information about their hopes, needs and capabilities.
“To bring representatives of the education and social welfare communities together to exchange information, increase their understanding of the problems and potentialities of low income individuals.
“To cooperate more effectively in reducing conflicts and inconsistencies in their policies and practices which often act as barriers to the efforts of low income individuals in moving out of poverty.
“To develop better public relations between those two communities and their clients, in order to alleviate the antagonism which often develops and to direct their energies to the resolution of clients’ social-economic problems.”
“To give teens, who may be at high risk for welfare dependency, an opportunity to benefit from the real-life experiences of those who are, or have been, public assistance recipients.”
“To communicate special insights about the implications of dropping out of school, becoming pregnant, or becoming entangled in a web of problems which interfere with the achievement of self-sufficiency.”
Alumni play an important part in HOME meetings. According to Sasaki, alumni are “the hard core College of Poverty” and they have graduated into self-sufficiency. No one knows more on how to do it than those who have done it.
“They are a crucial part of the HOME concept because they offer living proof that it can be done,” Sasaki said, “and intuitively understand and can connect with the participants.”
According to Kathy Jordan, HOME is “something to help the college and help people who need this information and motivation.”
The Community Council in Texarkana is currently planning a workshop to be held in January.