Chambliss Center gets $900,000 from Kellogg Foundation

Mary Edwards overcame poverty as one of multiple children born to a teenage mother living in a rural Alabama trailer park, and now she strives to help others.

The Chambliss Center for Children project manager and other staff members are working on a program to help hundreds of families overcome poverty, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation recently gave the center a $900,000 grant to help them do it.

"Once you get to a certain place in your life and you've been there, it's good to reach back and try to pull others forward," Edwards said.

She spoke Monday after learning the center received the money to implement an initiative she and other Chambliss staff helped develop.

The project started in 2014 when the Kellogg Foundation learned about the children's center through President and CEO Phil Acord's advocacy work in Washington, D.C. Acord's colleagues in Washington knew about the center and suggested the Kellogg Foundation use it to conduct a study that addressed poverty.

Chambliss Center Vice President Gloria Miller wrote the first guidelines for the study, which included having dinners with more than 300 families associated with the center, asking them their definition of success and what hindered them from achieving it. The Kellogg Foundation awarded the Chambliss Center about $250,000 in 2015 to implement the study. Miller hired Edwards to help.

After more than 30 meals, Miller learned that while resources were available to assist families, some didn't know they existed or they didn't push to receive them. She also learned some families accepted bad financial situations such as high interest loans or bad car deals because it was what they knew as normal.

Some 64 percent of parents reported working full time, with 19 percent working part time. Yet more than 70 percent of participants had annual household incomes of less than $25,000.

Some 60 percent of parents surveyed reported they sometimes have or do not have resources for housing and home ownership assistance when needed.

In response to their definition of success and their hindrances, families said they wanted their own home but couldn't find housing they could afford.

Others said a job would help them be successful but they had trouble finding one that paid livable wages.

Edwards and staff determined parents could benefit from having someone assigned to help families navigate the resources available to them. That person would tell parents where the job fairs are and provide transportation if needed. The navigators would assist families with affordable housing applications and put them in contact with people who could help repair their credit.

Miller also tries to address parents' needs by pulling in as many resources as she can to provide a one-stop shop for families at the center. It happens from 3-6 p.m. every fourth Monday. Those resources have included organizations such as legal aid, insurance and health care representatives. Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise presented home-buying workshops, and another group provided credit counseling.

It's a one-stop resource shop for parents at a time when they don't have to worry about child care because their children are at the center, Edwards said.

The foundation gave the $900,000 this month to fund four jobs for people who will help families navigate the resources available and provide resources to make sure young children are developing properly.

The two resource navigators start this month. The two child care coaches start in April, Miller said.

"Our goal is to do whatever that parent needs to be successful," she said.

Having grown up in poverty, Edwards said she understands how parents want to do well for their children, but may lack direction.

"Sometimes all you need is someone to say, 'Go here.' You just need support," Edwards said. "I had those people in my life, and I want to give that back."

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.

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