PEOPLE: RESILIENT MOTHER EARNS KEYS TO A BETTER FUTURE

When Elsie Welch applied for a job as a cook at Southeast Missouri Hospital last summer, she brought the interviewer some of her homemade chicken and dumplings. That's an example of the self-reliance that is transforming her life.

Earlier this year, Welch was an unemployed single mother of two who came to the Safe House for Women seeking refuge from an abusive relationship. Since June she has been the midnight cook at Southeast Missouri Hospital and last month got her first driver's license.

At a dinner and ceremony Wednesday night, Project Hope and the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council gave Welch the keys to her first car during a dinner at Evangelical United Church of Christ. It's a donated 1984 Honda, a car made the same year Welch graduated from high school, but in good condition.

"Most people who are struggling don't have dependable transportation," says Dennis Rigdon, the Project Hope coordinator. "People have told us they never expected to own a car."

This is the 13th vehicle donated through the project since last year.

Project Hope is a mentoring project sponsored by 10 area churches, including Evangelical United Church of Christ. Seven members of a Sunday school class at the church were Welch's Project Hope mentors. They helped her navigate the obstacles to self-sufficiency.

Help is available but getting it is sometimes the biggest problem. "They face so many things we take for granted," said Marian Kramer, one of Welch's mentors.

Welch went through Jump Start on Jobs, a program that helps people make the transition from welfare to work. Project Hope, funded through a grant from Caring Communities, takes the process one step further by helping people set attainable goals and offering training and education about banking and budgeting, all with an eye toward helping them attain self-sufficiency.

She acknowledges that her life has turned around dramatically in less than a year. "God kept me going," she said. "I try to be spiritual with God and let Him lead me where I can go."

She is not a member of Evangelical United Church of Christ but says, "I go to everybody's church."

Welch's 17-year-old son, Maurice, is in Charleston working through the Job Corps. Her daughter, Raquel, lives with her in Cape Girardeau.

Besides the car, she also received a gift certificate to spend however she wants and a necklace with a mustard seed pendant. "God said all we need to have is the faith of a mustard seed," explained Marsha Caughlan, wife of UECC pastor Jim Caughlan.