Date: Fri 11-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

Displaced-Homemaker-Fund

Full Text:

Local Fund Helps Displaced Homemakers Through Difficult Times

BY JAN HOWARD

A Newtown resident facing a financial dilemma while trying to get back into

the work force following a divorce or the death of a spouse can apply for help

through the Displaced Homemaker Fund.

The fund, according to Social Services Director Karen Hoyt, "is for a

situation where a person going into the work force needs to get a car fixed or

take a course," in order to get to work or to find a job.

The Displaced Homemaker Fund was established in 1989 by Church Women United,

an ecumenical group of women representing churches in Newtown. The fund is

administered by a board of directors as part of the Newtown Fund.

While displaced homemakers are more apt to be women, funds could also be

available to men who fall in this category, Mrs Hoyt said.

In the fund's first three years of existence, 16 people received help, she

said.

Mrs Hoyt estimates the fund now serves two to three people a year.

The fund provides one-time assistance for auto repairs, insurance payments,

automobile loans, adult education tuition, child care and telephone bills.

"It is not meant to be ongoing assistance. It's meant to get a person through

a crisis," Mrs Hoyt said. "We try to use money so as to enable a person to get

on with their life.

"It got them past the hump, and they didn't need any further help from us,

which is good," she said. "We try to keep it under $300 per person."

The highest amount that has been expended from the fund was $363 for

reconnecting a telephone. "If they don't have a phone, they can't make calls

to find work," Mrs Hoyt said.

Mrs Hoyt said a "driving force" behind establishment of the Displaced

Homemakers Fund was resident Jeane Roberts, now the president of Church Women

United.

Mrs Roberts said the fund came about as a result of a national movement that

recognized women were becoming displaced homemakers unexpectedly through the

death of a spouse or a divorce.

"The YWCA came up with the words `displaced homemakers' for the condition,"

she noted.

Members of the board of Church Women United, after talking with local

citizens, recognized that the problem was also occurring in Newtown. They

decided to do something about it.

During a May Fellowship Day luncheon at Trinity Church in 1989, the members

donated $87.22 toward a perpetual fund that would be set up to aid displaced

homemakers.

The board of Church Women United then approached the Newtown Fund to

administer the new fund.

The typical recipient of the one-time assistance is usually someone in their

late 40s or early 50s, according to Mrs Roberts.

"Some folks were left in difficult situations." she said, noting that help

from the fund "really tided them over."

"It's a quiet type of dilemma," she said. "People are too proud to go for

government help."

Mrs Roberts said the fund also "is a way for them to know the town's social

worker is available to them. Very few people know what other services are

available."

When the fund was first established, it received support from the local

churches -- Trinity Episcopal, Newtown Methodist, St Rose of Lima, St John's

Episcopal, Newtown Congregational and Christ the King Lutheran.

Most recently, donations have been received from Church Women United, women's

groups in the churches, the churches themselves and the Women's Club,

according to Mrs Hoyt and Mrs Roberts.

However, donations are not always enough to fully cover expenditures, Mrs Hoyt

said.

"We're spending more money than we're receiving," she said. In these cases,

the Newtown Fund covers the difference, she noted.

The current board of directors of Church Women United in Newtown includes, in

addition to Mrs Roberts, Vice President Doris Schoonmaker, Secretary Sue Klein

and Treasurer Margaret Forbell. Other members and their responsibilities are

Barbara Gates, ecumenical action; Pat Stroud, ecumenical development; Darlene

Jackson, ecumenical celebrations and publicity; and Betty Williams, worship

coordinator.

The group was founded in 1958 by the late Margaret Winchester and her mother,

Pearl Winchester.

Donations, earmarked for the Displaced Homemakers Fund, can be sent to the

Newtown Fund, PO Box 72, Newtown, CT 06470.