Older Students Find Friends At H.O.M.E.

Carol Vines and Laurel Kearns radiate warmth inside their drafty offices at Eastern Washington University’s old Monroe Hall.

The two women staff H.O.M.E. (Helping Ourselves Means Education), a program that offers peer counseling and community referrals for EWU’s non-traditional students - parents or low-income older adults.

Kerns is the H.O.M.E. student coordinator. The 36-year-old single mom is also a third-year psychology major. Hers is a 10-hour-a-week work-study job.

“So I spend a lot of time volunteering,” she says.

Vines manages EWU’s Women’s Center. She joined the center 12 years ago after working on domestic violence projects, a rape crisis hotline and in a variety of other community agencies that work on women’s issues.

Together, Kerns and Vines help hundreds of EWU students find affordable housing and child care, financial aid and utility assistance.

They also spend much of the school year raising money so H.O.M.E. can offer at least four $500 child-care scholarships.

“Affordable child care is really a sticking point. It’s really limited,” Kearns says. “EWU is the only state-run university that doesn’t have a child-care center on campus.”

The university negotiated with the city of Cheney several years ago to provide students with low-cost child care through the YMCA.

The city rented the YMCA a building on Fourth Street for $1 a year, while Eastern subsidized maintenance and janitorial services.

Now the city wants the building back. That means many EWU students will shuffle to find an inexpensive child-care alternative.

Eastern’s student association hopes to get a building on campus to house the day care next year.

But that would mean remodeling an old building like Monroe Hall.

Either way, Vines and Kearns will continue to support non-traditional students. “There is a support service out there for returning students,” Vines says.

“We just want people to know that we are here.”

If you are an EWU student who is struggling to make ends meet, or if you’re thinking about going back to school, call H.O.M.E. at 359-4237 or 623-4237.

, DataTimes MEMO: Created in support of the Spokane County Health Improvement Partnership (HIP), Discoveries highlights people working to improve community health and well-being. If you have a discovery that deserves recognition, call Elana Ashanti Jefferson at 459-5419. To get involved with HIP, call 482-2557.