Friday, April 23, 1976
University Daily Kansan
9
Penn House . . .
From page one
Most of Penn House's work is teaching people how to solve problems, Miller said. Sometimes certain cases make it necessary for people to be trained in food, clothing, medicine and transportation.
"Pen House helps people learn the system. Miller Somewhere there there's an answer," she says.
People in outlying areas are sometimes left out, not knowing what programs are available and how to apply for them. The main goal of the mobilization program is one such example.
The housing rehabilitation program was set up through community development funds by the Douglas County Commission last fall. The program enables low-income in the county to repair unsafe conditions that might be present in their homes.
Penn House also is doing more counseling of a limited kind. Miller said.
"Counseling to most implies something psychological," she said, "and we're not qualified to do that. Most people have a particular kind of fear and depression. The only thing I impaire a person's ability to function. We must learn a lot about and can counsel."
"HER NERVES WERE shot and she was frightened and confused. Now she's in a better position to make an intelligent decision," she said.
Miller explained resources and options such as the juvenile court, which could secure dependency and assure the children's safety.
TO REMEDY the problem of reaching families in outlying areas, Penn House workers travel to Baldwin, Eudora and was once a month to advertise the program.
She said a woman who had $3 in her pocket and four children came to Penn House recently for guidance after her husband had continually abused her.
Miller's Woman of the Year award has been a tremendous boost to morale at Penn House, she said. A half-dosen roses on her lap from staff member shows this appreciation.
"People here understand it takes a lot and that we're all working together. My name alone is on the award, but everybody is on of it. I don't know how to react . . .
people know me and know I can be effe-
cient. But very important people see me as ordi-
She gets furious, Miller said, when people say that the poor are unmotivated and uncivilized.
Miller said her childhood was wild, much of it spent in strange circumstances. Her father, a career Army officer who ran his family with military discipline, moved the family from Texas after World War II and served as a combatant an average of every six months.
"Working here has proved to me that the poor are not apathetic and unconcerned—you simply have to provide workable options for vehicles for problems as they see them."
SHE ALSO LEARNED street Greek,
high-class* Greek, and still remembers it.
MILLER ALSO IS the spokesman for Penn House, speaking on radio and television panels, in church groups and classes at Lawrence schools.
"I learned it from whores, beggars and flower mongers," she said. "We were in Greece almost three years. Greece was the only life we lived like a family for a while."
"That will continue as long as I don't start speaking about my values and conceptions," she said. "I ask everybody at Penn House what I should say. Sometimes there are two opinions. In that case, I'll tell both."
The family returned to the United States when Miller was a senior in high school. After graduation, she attended Reed College in Portland, Ore., for a year, until she had used all the money she had saved in high school.
While in Europe, Miller said, she learned excellent Italian and German but has since forgetten the languages because she didn't learn how to read or write them.
w at Ised College that she met her husband, Keith, who is an associate professor of human development at the University and head of the department at Washington University in St. Louis.
Miller says the marriage has been a nice mix.
"HE'S THE intellectual and academic of the family. We live in two different worlds,
which gives us a lot to talk about every night at dinner," she said.
Her husband agrees
"We're both independent professionals and we both have our own lives to live," he said. "This gives us a chance to come home and talk over things."
Miller said she didn't have total support from others while establishing Penn House.
The Milkers have two children: Marty, 17, and Kiera, 13. Oceo Carell said they helped with the cooking and housework and were also good at taking care of tossing the type of job for which she isn't paid.
"WHEN WE FIRST opened, there were a lot of hassles with the welfare department." He thought Penn House would be militant and thought Penn House would personnel was paranoid and uncooperative. That has entirely changed. They eventually do their work and doing are and are now extremely cooperative.
Officials interviewed had nothing but praise for Miller.
County commissioner I. J. Sstoneback said
county Miller was successful because the
commissioners felt it was in his interest.
"She's sincere in helping the poor," he said. "She really goes out and searches the poor and is very dedicated on behalf of them."
Ernest Coleman, county federal funds consultant, said Miller had the temperament to work with different kinds of people.
COLEMAN STRESSED that the county's housing rehabilitation program needed to get various kinds of information to various residents that Penn House was capable of doing that.
When Miller is on the schedule, he said,
she gets right in there and makes things
sound.
KU graduate students help with a Penn House training program that is designed to set up organizations similar to Penn House in other areas. Its goals are to teach office skills the operation of Penn House, welfare and housing police and tenant-landlord problems.
"If it turns out to be what we hope it will be, we'll mail it to grassroots areas," Miller said.
“It’s not to the point yet where it’s export-
able . . . but it’s going to be.”
Office wants to hear frets
Has one of your instructors changed the date for your final examination to a different one than was listed in the University calendar issued at the beginning of this semester?
If so, and the new date creats problems for you, Janie Hursh, Student Senate complaint service director, wants to hear about it.
The complaint service director, Hursh said Monday, is also available students who have missed class.
about the University. Students with complaints aren't required to disclose their information.
Hursh said she could refer complaints about rescheduled finals to the University Senate Calendar Committee, which is responsible for examination scheduling.
Hursh has an office within the Student Senate office in B-105 Kansas Union, but has no regular office hours. She said students can reach her by leaving a message with the Senate office. The phone number is 864-3710.
Magazine editor to read poetry
Alice Walker, contributing editor for Ms magazine, will read from her poetry and prose at 3:30 p.m. today in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union.
In addition to her magazine work, Walker is noted for her collection of short stories, In *Love and Trouble*, which last year won the prestigious Literary Awards from the Institute of Arts and Letters. Her short stories
Walker's 1973 book of poems,
"Revolutionary" Petunia was nominated for
the Literature Prize.
also have appeared in "The Best Short
American Short Story" of 1974.
Her appearance is sponsored by the KU department of English and is free to thePU student.
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Sunday, April 25 Big Eight Room, Union 1-5:00 p.m.
Basic Assumption: the need for Radical Change The Question: How?
- What does non-violence mean? •What is Radical Change about?
•How can non-violence be used effectively? •What does a commitment to non-violence mean as a personal life-style choice?
•Non-violence in politics, economics, national defense, human relations, physical and spiritual dimensions, etc.
•Your personal agenda with change, non-violence
After Session:
5:00-8:00 p.m.
Shared meal and informal gathering
UMHE Building, 1204 Oread
(bring some food to share, drink provided)
The KU-Y is partially funded by Student Activity Fees
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