SYLMAR : Grant to Ease Burden for Student-Mothers

Mission College will be giving a further boost to 15 mothers in their struggles to get through school and off public assistance, courtesy of a $20,500 state grant.

The funds, which should become available later this month, will go toward small stipends for books and to create a counseling and child-care system for the women, said Sonia Soto Bair, director of the college’s Extended Opportunity Program and Services, which serves educationally and economically disadvantaged students.

“It helps relieve them of the stress and financial difficulties,” Soto Bair said. “We’re very delighted. It’s just gotten off the ground.”

To be eligible, students must be over 18 years of age, have at least one child under the age of 6, have received Aid for Families with Dependent Children for a year and be enrolled in the opportunities program.

More than 600 students at the 6,000-student community college are enrolled in the EOPS program, Soto Bair said. Fifteen mothers have been selected for the new program, which will be called CARE, Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education.

“We have people lined up for it, and we have a waiting list,” she said.