Organization Offers a Lifeline for Single Mothers

Newly separated from her husband and searching for emotional support, Sandie Plush was relieved to learn about a Santa Clarita organization offering help for single mothers.

She and her four children were still adjusting to their two-bedroom apartment after moving from a 5,800-square-foot home that had had enough space for a live-in nanny. Their tight budget meant few goodies for the youngsters.

So after seeing a newspaper ad about Santa Clarita Valley Single Mothers Outreach, she decided to check it out. Founder Debbie Quick gave Plush a tour that included a 12-foot-long closet of donated clothes, tables covered with shoes, toiletries and day-old bread, and a laundry bin full of stuffed toys -- all available to local single mothers.

When they reached the small food pantry, Plush bristled when Quick offered a bag of donated food.

“I felt kind of embarrassed at the time and ashamed,” said Plush, 40, of Santa Clarita. “Then Debbie said, ‘You have a teenager. The least you can do is come home with a frozen pizza.’ When I got home, my teenager did back flips when he saw the pizza. It just gave me a boost and then I knew I could do it. It was that pizza that made a difference.”

Single Mothers Outreach is about giving hope to divorced, unmarried and widowed moms who either live in, or want to move to, the Santa Clarita Valley. In addition to basic necessities, the nonprofit provides career guidance, job leads, limited financial support and help with housing, child care, legal aid and financial planning.

More than 1,000 women and their children have been helped since the organization began in 1995. It has purchased uniforms for a mother who graduated from nursing school, rounded up donated toys so a mother could start a day-care business, even purchased a wheelchair for a child.

“I started this for the working single mother, not the welfare mom,” said Quick, 53, who has been divorced twice and has two grown sons. “It’s for the hardworking single mom who falls through the cracks.”

If a mother is in a bind, the organization will even pay a bill -- usually for a utility -- but only once a year. Clients who get such help are asked to volunteer one hour for every $10 of aid received.

Occasionally, the group denies a request, but still tries to help.

“If someone calls with an exorbitant rent they can’t pay and they’re not working, we would probably decline it. They will get evicted eventually anyway,” Quick said. “We’ll try to hook them up with a room for rent and suggest they take advantage of food pantries so they can save money.”

When Shellyn Conklin was told she had to either paint the outside of her mobile home or move it to a different trailer park, the organization arranged for a Kiwanis club to come over. She got a lot of work done on her place including the painting, a new fence, awning repairs and a flower bed. Quick’s group coordinated with local organizations and a business to do the work for free.

“I had no one else I could turn to for this help,” said Conklin, a single mother of two sons who is on disability from her job as a medical supply clerk.

Eleven percent of California’s 36 million residents live in a family headed by a single mother, and many of them are struggling to make ends meet. Overall, 13% of Californians live in poverty, compared with 30% of single-mother families, making them the most impoverished group, said Deborah Reed, an economist with the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco.

“The way America tries to help single mothers tends to be exclusively in the welfare system, which encourages women to spend their assets before they can get cash,” said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley.

“Until our government is willing to think about supporting families in a broader way, there has to be groups like these who can come to the aid of these women.”

Santa Clarita Valley Single Mothers Outreach started as an act of desperation. Quick was having a rough time during her second divorce. Her old car kept breaking down and the money she made as a manicurist wasn’t enough to support her sons.

“I thought to myself, ‘I can’t be the only one going through this,’ ” Quick recalled.

So in 1995 she put a free ad in the Pennysaver that read simply “Single Mothers Helping Single Mothers. If interested, call Debbie.” Eight mothers responded, meeting around Quick’s dining room table to talk about their lives.

“For the first year, all we did at our support group meetings was cry,” she said. “Then we all got a little stronger.”

After her oldest son joined the Army, she turned his room into an office and her garage became a food pantry. Her organization continued to grow, gaining nonprofit status, becoming incorporated and getting office space in a Santa Clarita strip mall. Three years ago, Quick gave up manicuring and started working full time for her cause.

The organization now has a $100,000 annual budget, the majority coming from corporate and foundation grants, and a small portion from government grants. This year, $28,000 is expected from fundraisers, including a May 23 luncheon and auction at the Hyatt Valencia.

The group gets many in-kind donations -- everything from office furniture to car seats to used refrigerators -- from a variety of sources, including local businesses, philanthropic organizations, religious groups and single mothers who want to return some of the help they received.

Last week, a collection at Rosedell Elementary in Saugus netted fancy hand lotion, picture frames, candles, gift bags and cards -- gifts that will be distributed to clients who otherwise would not receive a Mother’s Day present today.

“These are things that a single mom wouldn’t buy for herself,” Quick said as she looked over the items on a large table.

Volunteers are essential to the organization, she said. Some help out because they received money for a bill. Others just do it because they want to help.

John Cleveland, a retired computer programmer, began helping out with the organization’s computers because the office is close to his house. Eight months later, he’s the group’s treasurer -- one of three men on the board of directors.

“I get more out of it than I give,” said Cleveland, 57, who puts in 30 hours a week.

Donna Franks, a single mother of three sons, began volunteering when she was required to perform 32 hours of community service in lieu of paying a $300 traffic ticket. After she completed her required service, she decided to keep volunteering six hours a week.

“I want to give back,” said Franks, who has received $600 in rent assistance from the organization and a used living room set. “I’m very grateful.”

Plush, who picked up day-old bread from a Ralphs market for a year and a half, is grateful for the things her family has received, including $800 toward rent one month and a free eye exam and glasses for one of her sons.

“The help from Debbie gives you an edge, a way to go forward,” said Plush, the group’s 2003 Mother of the Year. “It helps to know you’re not alone.”