Student praises Ready to Work
OCTC Program helps single moms

By Mark Cooper
Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer

Penny Riley felt her life getting away from her.

The Owensboro native had dropped out of college in 1999 to take a full-time job at Sears. For her, a single mother of three children, the choice was either school or work, but not both.

"I couldn't get child support," said Riley, 31. "I had to raise my family."

Her choice, however, came with a heavy price. Since she worked many nights, Riley said her mother was forced to help raise her children.



"If it wasn't for this program, I would have to go to school here and then find a job after that. It allows me to be flexible, so I can be home with my kids at night," said Penny Riley, a single mother of three who's a student at Owensboro Community and Technical College and Western Kentucky University. Riley is enrolled in the Ready to Work program, which aids community and technical college students who receive Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program K-TAP funds. Riley works in the library at the Learning Resource Center in between taking classes at the college. Photo by Jenny Sevcik, M-I

"My biggest issue was that I wanted to be home with my children," she said. "I missed a big part of their lives."

Riley, however, recently earned an associate's degree from Owensboro Community and Technical College and will attend classes next fall at both OCTC and Western Kentucky University on her way toward a college degree in psychology.

And she credits her degree -- and newfound optimism about her future -- to a little-known OCTC program called Ready to Work that helps single mothers with jobs, job hunting skills, short-term training and other services to make them more attractive to employers.

The Ready to Work program, a partnership between the state's community and technical college network and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, recently was expanded to include individuals receiving Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (K-TAP) funds who are working toward their general education development certificate.

"I'm allowed to live out my dreams," said Riley, who works part-time at OCTC's library. "I didn't have to stay in the type of work I was doing. A lot of single mothers don't see a way out of working second shift, third shift, weekends. ..."

The program doesn't provide enough money for a single mother to live on, said Amy Fogle, OCTC's Ready to Work coordinator. Eligible students, including some single fathers and married couples, earn only $2,500 a year, she said.

"It's not much, but I've been blessed by what I do have," Riley said. "It's allowed me and my children to buy clothes and shoes, to have extra money for the things that they need."

The salaries do not reduce students' K-TAP checks nor raise their rent if they live in public housing.

The student works in jobs through partnerships with more than 30 Owensboro businesses, including Owensboro Medical Health System, the Career Center and OCTC.

After the $2,500 limit in state funding is reached, businesses are urged to keep a student on part-time at their own expense, Fogle said.

"We strongly encourage businesses to keep the students employed after their (work study) is over," Fogle said. "After training them for months, it doesn't make sense for them to let them go if they are working well."

But a salary is only part of the program's goals, Fogle said Tuesday. Career counseling, job training, interviewing skills, agency referrals and job networking are also important pieces of the program, Fogle said.

"It's so much more than just a job," Riley said.

Since it began in 1999, the program has served 300 local state-assisted students, Fogle said. The number served has grown each year. This spring, 70 students were served, including 40 who have been placed in jobs, she said.

More students are expected to participate since the program was expanded last year to include K-TAP recipients who are working toward their GED or high school graduates who want to brush up on their basic skills before going to college.

"The ultimate goal is to get them into college," said Ginger Alderdice, OCTC's Work and Learn coordinator.

More than 30 students participated in the Work and Learn program this spring.

To Help

Owensboro businesses willing to partner with Owensboro Community and Technical College's Ready to Work or Work and Learn programs should call Amy Fogle at 686-4556.