You can, just like anyone else. Simply apply to the college of your choice. You will most likely need to apply for financial aid as well. When you visit the Financial Aid office ask about scholarships. Some place keep a book that lists all of them (USM's financial aid office has such a book). Apply for everything you think you have a shot at.
Do you know about Parents as Scholars?
It's an off shoot of the ASPIRE program, designed specifically for people who qualify for TANF and would like to go to a 4 year university. This does not pay for college, contrary to popular belief/nasty right wing rumor. It allows you to continue to receive benefits while going to school, which is not possable in most states AND you can access a child care voucher for the time you are spending in class, internships, and/or doing work study. This is Maine's alternative to the "welfare to work" program that many states adopted, which requires TANF recipients to engage in activities such as scrubbing toilets or cleaning hotel rooms, working retail or some other minimum wage job to get off welfare. Skim Milf Mama is not knocking these jobs, btw, but very few of them will help your family get off welfare while having medical insurance, adequate child care, living above the poverty line, affording rent, and no longer qualifying for food stamps. College will however, allow you to earn your degree and increase your earning potential.
Parents as Scholars, as I mentioned, allows you to continue to receive benefits while in college. You can do work study to fullfill your work requirement while on TANF (which allows also allows you to network with university folk and build important refferences for your resume). You will qualify for a child care voucher (you choose the child care facility), amongst other important considerations. Your time spent in class, studying outside of class, engaging in activities such as internships and works study all count towards the work/job training requirement set by the state. Without PaS a student would be doing these things while still being required to work in one of the priviously mentioned jobs to fullfill the work/job training requirement. Anyone who recieves TANF and does not yet have a degree qualifies, with the exception being if you receive disability for yourself and are considered not able to work (I know. I don't like what that implies either). Recieving disability for a child does not prevent you from accessing this program.
You can also obtain help with transportation costs in the form of a bus pass or milage reimbursement, help with clothing needed for a job or internship (in the form of a voucher and/or a referral for dress for success), possable assistance with glasses, etc.
PaS will not prevent you from making typos in your blog, nor will it keep you from making silly little mistakes on state required paperwork in your post degree career. Seriously, ask my supervisior.
see more here:
http://www.mejp.org/pas_guide.htm
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PaS literally saved my ass... It's a great program that I remember my caseworker saying was under-utilized. Once I had my degree I was able to get a good-paying job and I've never had to go back on welfare (fingers crossed,LOL).
ReplyDeleteITA, It is totally under utalized. I think a lot of people who have children and are past the "traditional" student age feel like college isn't an option. Well, the average age of an incoming freshman (when I was there) was 27.
ReplyDelete& It's a much better option for your family then making $8 or whatever working 50 hours a week, coming home bitchy and never seeing your kids or getting to particpate in their school or daycare events. Also, if you start college when they are very young, go for 4 years, they should be starting school shortly after you begin working if they already havn't. So economically it makes more sense rather then having to juggle resources for years just to stay in a job that isn't going to improve your families quality of life.