Family Scholar House Residence to Open in Sellersburg, IN

ProMedia

For many single parents, pursuing higher education can be full of roadblocks and challenges that may feel insurmountable. 

Family Scholar House, a nonprofit based in Louisville, is having real impact by offering housing and other resources to parents who want to meet their educational goals. 

Founded in 1994, Family Scholar House was started by six orders of nuns who came together and focused on supporting single mothers pursuing higher education. According to Deja Jackson, Family Scholar House’s director of community engagement, when Cathe Dykstra, chief possibility officer, president and CEO, came on board, she expanded the program from serving four families to serving 105,000 families in 48 states. 

Residence Will Include 32 Two-Bedroom Units

Sellersburg, IN, is the newest community to get a Family Scholar House residence, which will be located on the campus of Ivy Tech Community College. Expected to open in 2025, it will feature 32 two-bedroom units for single mothers or fathers while they take classes at Ivy Tech or other local colleges. 

Participants in the program must be enrolled in school full time and meet with their assigned advocate and coach monthly. The advocate helps them with resources, such as mental health care, groceries, cooking classes, medical care and referrals to additional resources, while their coach handles school-related priorities, like ensuring they have textbooks. Another important resource is child care. Family Scholar House gets kids enrolled in school or provides day care for younger kids. 

“This project has been a decade in the making and is very important to our community and our campus,” says Dr. Travis Haire, chancellor of Ivy Tech’s Sellersburg campus. “Family Scholar House has a proven track record of helping families, and this is a great opportunity for single mothers. It changes the conversation and the whole trajectory of the family. We’re looking forward to welcoming students and their children, removing a barrier for both parents and kids.” 

The program stops generational poverty, Haire says, because the children are an integral part of their parents’ success. 

“It lets them know about how important education is and what opportunities are out there,” Haire says. “We’re very excited to see this finally come to fruition.” 

Students Receive Strong Support

Students get wraparound support in all areas. They meet with a career coach, receive help writing their resume, practice interviewing, participate in a mentoring program with area professionals and have access to Family Scholar House Academy, a bank of videos teaching everything from how to cook pasta to how to change a flat tire. 

“Our participants attend monthly workshops, they can get help registering for classes, get free tutoring, they get parenting support for things like potty training, they have access to a computer lab with a printer, stress support, health, wellness and meditation classes,” Jackson says. “They have everything they could possibly need.” 

Jackson highlights the success story of one Family Scholar House participant, Destiny, who prior to enrolling in classes at Ivy Tech was working three jobs just to make ends meet, which she felt shortchanged her son’s needs. 

With dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon, she started by getting her associate degree at Ivy Tech, followed by a bachelor’s from the University of Louisville and a master’s degree from Simmons College of Kentucky. She plans to continue to medical school and credits Family Scholar House with her success. 

John Launius, vice president and director of economic development for One Southern Indiana, the region’s chamber of commerce and economic development organization, has been involved with the project from the beginning and feels it will positively affect the region and its residents. 

“I would say that our Southern Indiana community is growing in three ways: commercial, residential and industrial careers,” he says. “From a quality-of-life perspective, those three things provide a unique opportunity for regional growth. I think what the Family Scholar House does is ensure our entire community has opportunities to benefit from the prosperity in this exciting time, regardless of their ZIP code or socioeconomic status.” 

The program affords parents a way to further their education, training, and upskill while getting comprehensive services from housing to transportation to mental health, he says. 

“There’s a truncated return because of the generational aspect with their children,” he says. “You positively impact the lives of the parents, but the kids’ lives are immediately being stabilized, as well.”