Her son passed away three years ago and she is currently taking courses in child development and mental health at the community college. She also serves as Vice President of the Community Cooperative Board which is part of a Foundation Rebuilding Communities project and is a member of an historical board that deals with different parks in her area. As to her work, Kathleen reports:

I am working with one of the largest community-based organizations since 96. I have traveled as their spokesperson. I am working with children seeing the accomplishment they have made because of what I have to offer, seeing growth in myself.

I do early childhood development with children, 0-5. I go into the home. I do supportive programs for the family as opposed to working with just the child. If you’re going to build the child, you have to build the family around them also. That is really challenging. It’s great to see the outcome. Parents can’t always see the strengths within them so it is up to me to help them see their strengths.

Service to the Community

As participants emerge from the chrysalis of education, they test their wings on their own fa mily and then spread them to encompass the larger community, the family of man. The process may take 10 to 20 years but, as participants acknowledge, the initial stimulus can be traced directly to the empowerment achieved by earning a high school diploma.

The larger community takes many different forms and offers many different rewards. According to the Impact Survey, 59 percent of participants are involved in church activities. Richard states that after getting his GED, he started

reading a lot better in church … I felt better about myself and I starting volunteering for different things. I was a Sunday school teacher with 8th graders for a couple of years. I was an adult Sunday school teacher for about a year. I was a Sunday school superintendent. All this stuff came about after I got my diploma, after I learned to read and got my diploma. I really felt it never would have happened if I hadn’t gotten my diploma. That really picked me up and I needed that.

Although Kevin received his GED in 1977 and went on to become a general foreman at his plant, it was not until he retired in 1988 that he became involved in community affairs. He explains: “I was appointed to the municipal authority, and then I was Chairman of the board for 8 years, which was a wider authority. I was on the board of the retirement village for 3 years … and I resigned from there, but I got a lot of recognition from the community. But the work I did, I wouldn’t have been able to without my HS diploma and GED. That was a big burden off me.”

Wilma has an associate degree and is the co-owner of a prosperous business. A recognized cultural leader in her small community, she associates her present standing with increased self-confidence and enhanced aesthetic understanding:

I’m involved in so much stuff right now. I was on the Board of Directors for an interfaith charity group here. I’m involved with the … County Cultural Center and we’re reopening the … Theater as a non-profit cultural center in addition to showing movies. I’m also on the Board for the …Library and I’m starting to do some grant work for that. I don’t think I’d be doing these things without my education. I have much more confidence now. Also, I wouldn’t be interested in cultural events if I didn’t know what they were.