Onward in partnership

President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal established public housing for struggling American families. In 1947, a commission enlisted by President Harry Truman called for the creation of public community colleges that would put higher education — and the economic mobility that came with it — into the reach of millions of Americans.

A partnership in New Hampshire connects those dots: Helping people who live in public housing in Portsmouth, Dover and Rochester to learn about, enroll in — and complete — degrees at Great Bay Community College.

For people with very limited economic resources and without the support of family members who have been to college, the barriers to college entrance and completion can be as tangible as an overdue electric bill or the shoes required for a nursing uniform or the lack of child care.

A Foundation grant is supporting a partnership between the college and housing authorities in the three cities to help students overcome those barriers.

“People have budgets that are so to-the-penny that any emergency can be the cliff they fall off of,” said Kate Haley Webb, a Great Bay college navigator. She connects with folks who live in public housing and helps students through the process — from application to graduation. Each student has consistent meetings with Academic Counselor Mike Hart and Student Support Coordinator Julie Dockery.

Z, (who asked to be referred to by her first initial) lives in public housing with her three-year-old son. She loves science — particularly microbiology. She has earned A’s in nearly every class she has taken, and has enrolled in a two-year program to become a registered nurse. Grant funding helps cover the support positions at the college, and covered the fee for the test Z needed to take to get into the nursing program and helped get her phone reconnected.

Julie is Z’s first call in a crisis.

“They became kind of like a family,” Z said.

Z grew up as a ward of the state, moving from place to place. She wants to give her little boy the stability she never had. Enrolling at Great Bay was the first step. Then, general education requirements. Next, becoming an R.N. She plans to continue through her Ph.D. in nursing and become a nurse anesthetist.

“I want to prove that those of us who were wards of the state can pursue something and do something in their lives,” Z said.

Some 20 students who live in public housing are now part of the program. Last semester, they had an 84 percent pass rate in their classes.

Z is excited for nursing school — and nervous. She knows the program is challenging.

“She is amazingly smart,” Julie said. “She is going to make it. I know she is.”