BRIDGING GAPS: UNIVERSITY PURSUES BOOTHEEL INITIATIVE

Southeast Missouri State University wants to help Bootheel families get off the welfare rolls.

The university has launched the Bootheel Initiative.

Southeast will assess the short-term needs of Bootheel families as a whole, and train and assist agencies and organizations on how best to provide services.

Also on the agenda is development of youth diversion programs to provide activities to keep youth out of trouble, school officials said. That includes after-school and college-bound programs.

Provost Dr. Charles Kupchella said the Bootheel Initiative will be a key part of the university's new Regional Public Service Institute.

The institute will coordinate the university's various public service projects and programs in the region.

Southeast officials from President Dr. Dale Nitzschke on down have touted the need for faculty, staff and students to better serve the region.

The program has been established with about $800,000 in grant money -- most of it from the Missouri Department of Social Services.

The program operates out of a campus office in the Dearmont building and at the Bootheel Education Center in Malden.

In November, the university hired John Reed to coordinate the program at a salary of more than $40,000.

Southeast also has a staff person at the Malden center who is training workers with the Division of Family Services to assist welfare recipients in getting off the government rolls.

That effort is being funded with a $55,000 grant from the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council.

At the urging of the state, Southeast also is seeking $1 million in federal money as part of government efforts to provide public transportation for persons seeking to move from welfare to work.

Most of the money would go to expand transportation services in the region. The money could be used by transportation companies and agencies to buy new vans and hire additional drivers.

Dr. Paul Keys, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Southeast, has helped set up the Bootheel Initiative.

The focus is on the poorest areas of the Bootheel, including Pemiscot and Mississippi counties.

Keys said the university is currently interviewing Bootheel families in a four- to six-county area to determine their short-term needs.

Keys said the assessment should be completed by early summer.

About 500 Bootheel families currently are faced with losing their welfare benefits after two years of assistance.

Under Missouri's welfare-to-work program, recipients lose their welfare benefits after two years.

Keys said leadership training is needed to help community leaders work to address the problems of poverty.

"One thing we've discovered is that money alone won't solve all of the problems in the Bootheel," he said.

Southeast also can help through more education programs such as a social work-degree program that is tailored to meet the needs of the Bootheel, Keys said.

Two-year college programs also are being considered as a way to provide welfare recipients with the skills needed to get jobs.

Southeast's Bootheel Initiative has the support of state Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter, and state Rep. Charles Quincy Troupe, D-St. Louis.

Both lawmakers worry that there are gaps in the state's social service programs and that a coordinated approach is needed.

Southeast officials said the Bootheel Initiative is just on the ground floor. But in the long run, they think it could pay big dividends for those trying to break out of the cycle of poverty.