Cathe Dykstra, Director of Project Women, explains that this local program — designed to house and educate single mothers — was originated by nuns who understood the importance of education.

“When you joined the nunnery, they put you through school,” says Cathe. “So as women, nuns had an opportunity to get a college degree and they learned the value of that. Then when they started working in the community, they found that women could get help with a GED or sometimes with housing but there was no real support for higher education.”

From this foundation comes Cathe’s mantra, which she says over and over . . . "People with more choices, make better decisions.” 

And this is what she oversees on a daily basis: 21 families in her current housing program with single mothers as the heads of those families . . . all of whom attend college as a requirement of the program, 25 families in post-program support (those who have exited into stable housing and / or finished degrees) and 207 families in a pre-residential status who still receive assistance with the college application process and grant finding.

And those are just the logistics. The psychology involved is to break the cycle of women feeling and being un-empowered to take care of themselves and their children.

Cathe recently spoke at the Women as Global Leaders Conference in Dubai and used Project Women as a success for the housing / education model. To date, 100% of the program’s mothers have exited into stable housing for their families and 22 of 80 women served have obtained their college degrees. One is even working on a PhD. 

Cathe talks about the components that have made Project Women a local success. “There is a breeding ground for innovation here,” she says, “with tremendous support from the mayor, the University of Louisville and simply a community that recognizes that we have an opportunity to change the client services paradigm from short-term assistance to long-term solutions. And people are aware that they have to invest in that . . . and they do here.”

Project Women will be moving into a new $13 million facility in August with a greater capacity for support. And about breaking the cycle, Cathe says, “When you educate a woman, you really educate the whole family.”