by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 03/97) - Every weekday since Oct. 1, Dora Nadli, like her nine-year-old son Steven, has been going to school.

The single mom from Fort Providence who dropped out of school has finally found the courage to go back.

She's enrolled in the YWCA's FOCUS program, a unique initiative geared toward single moms seeking personal development and pre-employment skills.

Unfortunately, due to lack of funds the YWCA is in danger of closing down.

"It's a really helpful program," said Nadli. "If the focus program gets more funding, they might extend the program. That'll be great," she added.

The program is currently helping six students with basic math, English and computer skills.

This week, students are on job placements at local businesses for on the job training.

FOCUS, which receives most of its funding from the Department of Education, has been operating since the spring of 1996.

Last Friday, program co-ordinators hosted an open house at their lower-level Scotia Centre location to highlight FOCUS and the drastic situation it faces.

Even though a large number of invitations were sent out, only a couple of dozen people, mostly representatives from women's groups and income support workers with the Department of Education, attended.

No MLAs showed up for the occasion.

Lisa Campbell, a FOCUS educator, said on Friday that right now they don't have enough funds to run a program in February, despite having six women on the waiting list.

They have been offered funding from the Department of Education to continue but it won't be enough she said.

If the program is shut down it would be the second adult education program forced to close its doors in the last couple of months.

Project Change shut down in October because of lack of funds.

"With Project Change closing there's not a lot of opportunities for these people to go back to school. That's the big thing," said Campbell.

Karen Carleton, the other educator with FOCUS, is hoping more dollars can be found to keep the program going next year.

"This is a really important program. We'd really hate to see it discontinued," said Carleton.