Louisville Magazine

MAR 2013

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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C athe Dykstra is all about putting a college education in reach for unmarried parents. She is the ���chief possibility offcer��� for Family Scholar House, which ofers a variety of self-help workshops and 167 apartment units for single parents. More than 1,800 single parents are part of its services. Tis summer, Scholar House will open a new location, this time in Parkland at the corner of Catalpa and Dumesnil streets. ���It starts with believing in yourself, and having a hope for a brighter future,��� Dykstra says. But that���s a big step for some. ���Tere���s a shortage of vision, it seems to me, due to hopelessness. If you���re hopeless, you don���t have a vision. ���Tere���s a disconnect for a lot of people, particularly those who have not grown up in homes with college-educated parents,��� she says. ���Sometimes talking about going to college seems like planning a trip to Mars.��� Erin Duerson, 20, has the lean and strong look of someone who works out. Her apartment in the Scholar House, not far from the University of Louisville, is spartan, not a scrap of paper out of place. She was 16 and living in Portland when she got pregnant with Chase. She didn���t want to admit it to herself, but her mother fgured it out when she was not much more than a month along. Tey went to the store together and bought a pregnancy test. ���Oh my gosh, she was disappointed,��� Duerson says. ���She didn���t want me to go through the things she did when she had me. Because she was 16 when she had me.��� Instantly, her life changed. She quit cheerleading and started working two jobs. Her friends disappeared. ���Tat was basically my life, trying to support myself and my son, working all the time, and trying to fnish school, which became a challenge,��� she says. Her son���s father was also working, and also contributing to Chase���s care. ���I was very fortunate to come across someone who stood by me.��� Her ft-and-trim look is courtesy of Scholar House. To get an apartment, parents must take six budgeting classes and earn points by taking workshops. She went to cooking classes and nutrition classes and lots of exercise classes. She���s fnishing an associate���s degree at JCTC and plans to attend U of L. She wants to work in the legal system, maybe as a prosecutor. Right now, she works third shift at UPS. She drops Chase of with his dad or grandmother in the evening and gets up at 2 a.m. for her shift. ���It���s not that I regret it, but sometimes I wonder where I would be, or what my life would be like, and what I would be doing, if I did not have a child,��� she says. ���But I do love him dearly, and I wouldn���t change having him.��� I t���s just after 4 p.m. Te guy from Louisville Metro Housing is on his way over. Last time, he took one look at Big Easy and rescheduled the appointment. So after a short burst of freedom, the dog reluctantly skulks to his crate and his crying. John Victor, a senior social worker with Metro Housing, comes in the door, a knit cap on his head. It is snowing again. He and Brock settle on one of the two living room couches and begin talking about her fnances. Brock says she hopes she can eventually buy a house. Maybe even this one. Her hair shows a streak of yellow-blond near the front, but today it���s wrapped in a light-colored turban, the look accenting her high cheekbones. She wears a black T-shirt with the words ���Black Women Rock��� in bright pink letters on the front. She tells Victor that she���ll use the money she gets back from taxes to pay down some debt, which will move her closer to homeownership. Tat money is the Earned Income Tax Credit, which Karen Christopher at U of L calls ���the most efective poverty-reduction program we have.��� Since it���s a tax refund, you have to work to earn it, and it���s available to low- and moderate-income families. Victor urges Brock to think about her options. Is this really the house she wants? ���You want to fnd a house that���s low-maintenance,��� he advises her. ���If you want to stay here, you say, ���Before I buy this house, A, B, C and D needs to be fxed.��� And you want to think about, is this where you want to live?��� Tere are two boarded houses on her block, but it���s quiet. ���I don���t have any problems with my neighborhood,��� she tells Victor. In the kitchen, Michael scales the cupboard and stands on the kitchen counter to reach a bowl. Ten he retrieves a big bowl of Jell-O from the fridge and cuts into it with a knife. Te refrigerator door is wide open. Brock has always lived in west Louisville. It���s familiar. It���s comfortable, it���s convenient, and it feels safe enough. ���I don���t have any problems where I live at. I stay to myself. I don���t do anything that would cause anybody to bother me,��� she says. ���It���s quiet.��� Te people who used to get rowdy here, she says, are gone. ���Te landlords got rid of all the bad people. Tey fnally caught on to what was going on.��� Later that afternoon, Kie���Vonna arrives home with a new hairstyle. Brock���s sister is the stylist. She lives just down the street. Brock puts Banquet chicken pot pies in the oven, and Michael slows down enough to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Big Easy is in his crate in the kitchen, whimpering. Someone bumps the video player. Te movie starts again. Michael watches it and chatters. Across Louisville this evening, thousands of moms make dinner while children watch television. One quarter of these mothers are unmarried like Brock. But demographics don���t matter on a snowy evening, with the aroma of pot pie coming from the kitchen. West Louisville has everything Brock needs right now: her family, her jobs, her life. For Natalie Brock and thousands of moms, west Louisville is home. 3.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4 9

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