Nicole Beyer is a single mother of four, college student, and Jeremiah Program participant.

She grew up on a farm in Nicollet, Minn. In 2004, her senior year of high school, she became pregnant with her first daughter. After graduating, she left college, followed her daughter’s father to Iowa, and joined the workforce while he finished school. She’s tried college several times since, but each time, life circumstances stymied her efforts.

“I didn't think I was good enough. Didn't think I was smart enough. Didn't think I could do it [or] think I was worth it,” Beyer says. “Just being here has changed that.”

“Here” refers to the Rochester-SE MN Jeremiah Program campus, where Beyer has lived since September. Last semester, Beyer made the RCTC President’s list, won an Oaks Foundation Scholarship, and earned a 4.0 GPA. She’s working toward a career as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, and while discussing that path, she rattles off info about potential pathways to Winona State or St. Mary’s University.

These are insights she’s gained, largely, thanks to her Jeremiah Program family coach, who, in addition to other roles, acts as an auxiliary college advisor, helping her find future paths and avoid financial aid pitfalls.

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The Rochester Jeremiah Program campus opened its doors last summer, in the midst of the pandemic, and is now home to 40 single mothers and their families. The program and its campus are designed to empower single moms to be the agent of their families’ success by removing barriers.

Families live in affordable, fully-furnished apartment homes on campus. Moms receive support to obtain a career-track college degree while their children attend on site early childhood education. The campus is loaded with supports like counseling, family coaching, childcare, and life skills training. Because it was built and opened during the pandemic, a handful of its facilities have yet to be used, though that hasn’t stopped sisterhood — the “secret sauce” of JP — from growing among the participants.

“There's a lot of power that comes with supporting other women and getting support from other women,” says Ally Hanten Ebert, the program’s new executive director.

The Jeremiah Program was founded in Minneapolis in 1998 to address that city’s high number of undersupported single, female-headed households living in poverty. In the years since, other communities across the country learned about Jeremiah Program and built campuses, providing supports that enable single moms to excel in their education, grow their inner resilience, and pave a bright future for their families.

Ally Hanten Ebert, executive director of the Rochester-SE MN campus

“No mom should have to be put in a position of having to sacrifice their education for their children, which is what all moms would do, right? This model is really about providing that barrier reduction,” says Hanten Ebert.

The Rochester-SE MN campus enjoys a support network that includes community, business, and government actors. During a capital campaign to raise money to build the campus, those supports provided material help. Now, they’re a central part of advancing the mission, as resources, teachers, and advisors.

“It's the epitome of what it means when communities invest in their community and support their most at-need,” says Hanten Ebert.

Beyer learned about the program while in a treatment facility in St. Cloud (one of the few in the state for moms and their kids), where she found a pamphlet in a resource binder. She had resigned herself to not finishing school until her children, ages 16, 8, 4, and 2, were older, but applied anyway. Days later, she was contacted, interviewed, and accepted into the program.

Unlike other programs with similar aims, participants join the Jeremiah Program as a group, called a cohort. When an eligible (18 years old, high school or GED graduate, college-bound) single mother is referred to the program, she enters a waiting list. Once a group of 12-20 is ready, they begin 12 weeks of pre-enrollment Empowerment Classes as a group. These classes are led by Empowerment Facilitators trained in Jeremiah Program’s Empowerment curriculum. During Empowerment, moms examine and center around their values, unlearn harmful thinking attached to trauma and poverty, and tap into their inherent capacity to achieve their dreams for themselves and their families.

Sarah Kamin is Beyer’s family coach. Her coaching sessions always begin with gratitudes.

“We're all trying to keep a positive outlook on the challenges we’re facing. That's the biggest thing for me,” Kamin says, noting that positivity can help ease the complications of balancing work, parenting, finances, and school.

Sarah Kamin, a family coach for the Jeremiah Program

Pre-Covid, the cohort groups met in person and would emerge as a tight-knit group after the initial 12 weeks. The courses run on Zoom now.

“I was really bummed that it was like all over Zoom. But, you know, we're adapting,” says Beyer, who says she’s made it a point to greet the other moms she sees on campus and has been approached by other mothers in recovery.

Upon completion of their Empowerment classes, established participants may move onto campus and become formally enrolled in the Jeremiah Program. There, as the families adapt to life in a new space, skills-based classes commence. These range from CPR to healthy relationships, from financial literacy to mental health.

While waiting to move onto campus, Beyer juggled transitional housing with work and the start of the school year. Things got easier as soon as she got on campus; just about everything is different there than other places she’s lived, she says. Interaction with other mothers is easy thanks to a participant-founded Bible study and other groups, a children’s library, early childhood development, and other services that make life easier. The women even devised a shared laundry system and cooperate in making meals for the kids.

“It's a building full of moms, with kids; we all can definitely get under each other's nerves, but, [we are] able to come out of that and have sisterhood, no matter what,” says Beyer.

When Covid hit, Beyer says, there were days when the early childhood development center on site would be closed for days at a time. That’s where the supportive fabric of Jeremiah Program’s campus kicked into overdrive. The moms used their existing communication network to coordinate a makeshift daycare system, allowing other mothers to continue on with their goals. That kind of support continues beyond graduation.

“It's really important because we haven't quite beat poverty yet, right? Just getting that paper, that's not the final step. We want to make sure that we're supporting moms to find really stable housing and find a job that is in line with their career and supports them in a way that's really beneficial,” says Hanten Ebert.

After graduation, mothers have six months of transition planning where staff helps find secure housing and stable employment. Their children can continue in the early childhood center until they’re ready for kindergarten.

To learn more about the Rochester Jeremiah Program, visit https://jeremiahprogram.org/rochester/.

Bryan Lund is a Rochester writer and regular contributor to Med City Beat.

Photography by William Forsman