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The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc. has awarded a $45,000 grant to the ACCESS Project at Hamilton College. The grant will help to underwrite the creation of the ACCESS Center -- a resource center for women who wish to successfully make the transition from welfare to a future that includes education, a career, or another pathway to personal and professional growth and change.

"The ACCESS Center is an important project, committed to improving women's lives. Thanks to the Community Foundation, this critical component of the ACCESS Project will become a reality. Through their educational experiences, participants will empower themselves, thereby making a difference in our larger community," said Thomas J. Schwarz, acting president of Hamilton College. "We look forward to providing the Community Foundation with the success stories of many women who will be aided by the program and the Foundation's support."

"The ACCESS Project represents an approach not used in other welfare to work programs," said Gordon Hayes, Jr., executive director of the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. "Rather than focusing on specific job skills, it will teach people how to think critically and how to develop attitudes and habits that lead to successful families."

The ACCESS Project, announced in October, is a pilot project that will assist disadvantaged Oneida and Herkimer County women in obtaining a higher education. It is unique in that it will help participants move from welfare to meaningful work through an intensive and fully-supported introduction to liberal arts education, coupled with extensive long-term educational, social service, employment and family services support, such as transportation, childcare and tutoring.

The Resource Center will be crucial to the program and to ensuring the long-term success of the students who come with unique social service, academic, family, financial and personal needs. Students at the center will be able to receive and negotiate services that will ensure their long term success in the program, including academic services, such as counseling, tutoring, work-study workshops, reference books and software and computer skills workshops; social services, such as childcare support, transportation, medical and dental benefits, clothing, book and food banks; coalition building services, such as peer support, leadership workshops and programs, and food and clothing co-ops; and employment services, such as resume and writing workshops, employment and social service internships and career counseling.

The ACCESS Project is a working partnership between five academic institutions (Hamilton College, Utica College, Colgate University, SUNY Institute of Technology and MVCC), eight social service providers, major business organizations, politicians, government agencies, community groups, charitable institutions, private citizens and former and present welfare recipients.

The ACCESS Project will initially serve 20 women per year for four years, with the first group beginning the program in the fall of 2000.

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