DALLAS TWP. — State Secretary of Human Services Teresa Miller and state Sen. Lisa Baker were among a contingent of Pennsylvania legislators who met with representatives of the Ruth Matthews Bourger Women with Children Program (WWC) at Misericordia University to learn more about the program.
The Bourger Women with Children Program at Misericordia is the only single mother program in the Pennsylvania, and among only seven of its kind in the U.S. that offers housing and support to single mothers at the poverty level and up to three of their children, while the mothers earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a supportive campus environment.
Although preference is given to women from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, students have come from as far away as Utah and Montana with their families to earn a degree. The university has dedicated three houses on the campus to the WWC program and has a current capacity of 16 women and 32 children.
Among those participating in the informational session were Mike Cortez, executive director of the PA Senate Health and Human Services Committee; Kristin Crawford, director of legislative Affairs, state Department of Human Services; Lisa Watson, deputy secretary, Office of Income Maintenance, PA Department of Human Services, and Ann Houssock, state Rep. Karen Boback’s office.
The team met with Katherine Pohlidal, director, WWC; and Sister Jean Messaros, RSM, vice president for Mission Integration. Sister Messaros founded the program in 2000.
They also heard a WWC success story firsthand from Judy DeLuca, the first graduate of the WWC program. A single mother with few career prospects, she was 23 years old and her daughter, Lauren, was 7 when she entered the program. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2002. DeLuca is a business service representative with Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in Wilkes-Barre and Lauren, now 25, is an environmental engineer and staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force.
