Moving Up and Out by Lori Holyfield

Moving Up and Out by Lori Holyfield

Single parent families in the United States have almost tripled in the past few decades. A huge majority of these families are female headed. In American culture it is not so important that we all be equal so much as it is that we all have equal opportunities. Yet sometimes we turn a blind eye to those who need us most. In fact, when it comes to single parent families, it is as if the barriers are too great, the issues too complex. We wind up reducing the debate to its lowest common denominator. Ironically, it is the families who are most affected that get tangled in the political barbed wire and hidden behind numbing statistics. Moreover, community responses, those small grassroots organizations who care deeply and give whole-heartedly are seldom celebrated, seldom recognized for their empowering efforts. Moving Up and Out focuses on just such a program, the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund, which has since 1984 provided scholarships for single parents interested in obtaining their post-secondary education. In this story of a highly successful nonprofit, Lori Holyfield (herself a recipient of a scholarship) draws upon the voices of single parents to consider the barriers and struggles faced as they attempt to obtain secondary education and change the lives of both themselves and their children. The help this program has brought to Arkansas residents is needed throughout the country.

There is no reason that this wonderful idea can't work in places beyond ArkansasLocal businesses, foundations, churches, civic organizations, and private citizens can join together to form their own scholarship funds and their own committees, designed to help single parents in their communities lift themselves and their families out of poverty on a permanent basis. -From the Foreword by Hillary Rodham Clinton, founding Board President of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund Holyfield looks realistically at what education can and cannot do in relation to upward mobility for poor women. She attends carefully to race and gender. I am persuaded by what I take to be her main argument: that education really does make a difference in terms of income and job opportunities and the chance to get ahead. -Susan Ostrander, Professor of Sociology, Tufts University and author of Money for Change and Women of the Upper Class Moving Up and Out is a well-written celebration of a program and the success of specific individuals, rather than an analysis of poverty. The book's strengths are its detailed discussion of the program, followed by hints for how to start one like it and the actual voices of the women, detailing how poverty itself and the welfare system affect them day-to-day. It will be useful to activists, policy makers, and general audiences. -Dr. Lynda Ames, Professor of Sociology, State University of New York, Plattsburgh, and co-author of Women Reformed, Women Empowered (Temple)

Lori Holyfield is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781566399159
ISBN 10	1566399157
Title	Moving Up and Out
Author	Lori Holyfield
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Temple University Press,U.S.
Year published	2001-12-31
Number of pages	192
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable