Among the single parenting materials I’ve collected over the years is a “CareNotes” booklet entitled “Doing Your Best as a Single Parent.” (CareNotes are brief booklets with words of support, guidance and healing for those who are hurting. Learn more about them at www.carenotes.com.)
Recently I noticed that this booklet’s author, Gail Grenier Sweet, is described as the founder of “HOPE Network for Single Mothers” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (http://www.hopenetworkinc.org/). I wanted to find out more about Ms. Sweet and the HOPE Network so I contacted her.
What is the HOPE Network? Here’s how it’s described at its web site:
HOPE Network for Single Mothers is a volunteer-based grass roots support system. It provides emotional and material support to single mothers and their children in the greater Milwaukee area. Founded by Gail Grenier Sweet in 1982 as a nonprofit charitable organization, HOPE Network programs are designed to help mothers gain a sense of community, enhance their parenting skills, and develop self-reliance.
I was surprised to learn that Ms. Sweet has never been a single parent; she was moved to launch the HOPE Network for other reasons. What follows are excerpts from my conversation with her, in question-and-answer format.
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Q. How did you start the HOPE Network and why?
A. I got an inspiration one morning when I woke up: to start a home for single moms and their babies. I had recently become a pro-life convert and wanted to do something as an alternative to abortion. I got five friends from Feminists for Life of Milwaukee to help me. We found a house and started “Hope House” in 1983.
Q. What does “HOPE” stand for?
A. Holistic – Opportunities – Parenting – Education. The “H” used to be for “housing,” but that was too hard.
Q. Is this a totally volunteer operation – are there no employees? If all-volunteer, how do you recruit volunteers?
A. We have two employees. I’m now the office manager (I used to be executive director, but didn’t want to be a boss any more) and we have an executive director. I work 10 hours per week and the executive director works 20 hours per week. We have six volunteers: four faithful office volunteers and two faithful clothing sorters, plus other volunteers for events, services, and board duty. We recruit volunteers through churches, word of mouth, and the Milwaukee Volunteer Center.
Q. How do you get funding for what you do? I see that you’re a “nonprofit charitable organization” – is that a specific legal entity? Are you supported by groups like the United Way?
A. We are a nonprofit charitable organization, a 501 (c)(3) entity, I believe it’s called. You can get forms to become this and do the registering yourself; we did. A 501 (c)(3) is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. Our main money comes from churches and individuals. We are not a United Way agency, but some do donate to us through the option of United Way at their workplaces.
Q. Do you really manage to put out a quarterly newspaper, hold monthly support groups/get-togethers with speakers, offer scholarships, arrange family activities, organize trading posts, and maintain a web site? How?
A. Ha! By the seat of our pants. One board member has done the newspaper herself out of her home for about 20 years. We vaguely maintain a web site when someone has the time – it’s very out of date. The other activities we keep up with pretty well. We just keep at it.
Q. Do you offer your services and support to single Dads? If you don’t, why don’t you?
A. We’ve had this question many times. We’re too small to help Dads too. We can’t even help all the Moms who need our help. We help as many as we can. Dads, however, can get our newspaper free – with lots of resources for them and Moms in it.
Q. It’s my impression that the single Moms the HOPE Network serves are socioeconomically disadvantaged. If so, does this mean that you have some sort of income or means test for members? Or is the group open to all single Moms, regardless of their specific financial situations?
A. The only qualification is that HOPE Moms must be single. They may be widowed, divorced, separated, or never-married. Most are poor, but not all. We’d like to reach out more to the middle-class single Moms; they need help, too. In general, the poorer Moms find us because they need us very much.
Q. I find the HOPE Network to be such an inspiring effort. It makes me want to go out and start something like this around here.
A. Hooray! Go do it! Five women can move a mountain. I was 31 when I started HOPE. My parents and brother had recently been killed in a car accident. I wanted to establish something life-affirming in their honor.
Q. Could you please provide me with a few personal details about yourself?
A. I’ve been married 33 years and have three children, ages 21, 27 and 29, two daughters-in-law, ages 26 and 27, plus one grandbaby, age one. I’ve never been a single Mom.
I teach creative writing at a technical college. I also “nanny” one day a week for triplets who are almost three. I work about 20 hours a week for pay, then keep Thursday for my writing day (web site now, rather than newspapers and magazines) and Friday for my grandbaby day.
I grew up in Milwaukee and now live in a northwest suburb in a semi-rural area (we used to keep chickens).
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Ms. Sweet closed with words of encouragement for those of us who might want to establish a single mothers’ (or parents’) network in our own local areas.
“You can do it,” she said. “My advice is to pick ONE mission and keep it small. Do that well for a year before trying anything new. Get a board of directors to help you.”
In particular, Ms. Sweet stressed, “Make sure they all agree on the mission and are fired up to do it.”