Home-Hold: Single Parent Resource, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 as a charitable, educational nonprofit by five single mothers. They did so because their efforts to provide stable nurturing homes for their children were frustrated by obstacles that are inextricably linked, one exacerbating others:

• Inadequate income and/or child support;
• Lack of affordable housing;
• Lack of reliable child centered child care;
• Inadequate support networks;
• Lack of information on cost effective acquisition of goods and household management.

Raising children is rewarding, but difficult work. A single parent performs a job that requires a minimum of two people (but ideally, a whole village). Even two parent families need extended family or supportive people nearby to help occasionally; and they will hire support people, if they can afford it. Without a spouse, extended family, support network, or income to pay for same, single parents often work so hard that they have little time or energy to nurture children. This situation is made worse by dwindling public resources; the erosion of housing subsidies and federal voucher programs; and the loss of funding for public agencies. In a housing market where even people with apparently adequate incomes have difficulty finding a home, the result has been growing numbers of single parents and their children who are homeless. We can only extrapolate the many single parents who are "near homeless."

Single parents, who are locked out of full economic participation and the housing market, need information about Economic Survival Techniques, such as cooperative bulk buying, exchanges of goods and services as well as consigning outlets that enable them to feed and clothe their families less expensively than is typically done. Single parents also need information on alternative approaches to housing, child care, education and skills training, and alternative career options, including work at home.

These mothers originally met as a support group to share economic and social survival techniques. They soon recognized that by forming cooperative arrangement, their needs could be met for child care, transportation, housing, etc. They also found scattered resources available to single parents from existing organizations and, but no organization enabled them to work cooperatively to solve problems. So Home-Hold was incorporated.

Activities were piloted by members on a volunteer basis in their homes with seed money from the Boston Women's Fund, some in- kind donations from businesses and a few generous contributions from individuals. Testament to the strength of Home-Hold is that so much has been done with so little funding.

Home-Hold's original "Links" newsletter was published in June 1991 to disseminate information pertinent to single parents, and it served as central clearinghouse of shared living listings for single parents. Listings placed in the newsletter by single parents enabled them to connect with each other directly to explore cooperative arrangements of various kinds. Listings also helped alleviate the tedious process of checking advertisements in as many communities as a parent was willing to live, not to mention the near impossibility of traveling to see a variety of apartments that may be widely spaced geographically.

Some time later, we noticed that some single parents' situations improved by their participating in cooperative arrangements with people who were not single parents, so the newsletter was revised. People struggling with similar issues were invited to place Listings in 1998. The variety of cooperative arrangements was expanded to include co-renting an apartment, co-buying a house, starting a support group, exchanging skills, starting a bulk buying group, starting a cooperative business venture or anything cooperative that strengthens social and economic standing.

Guiding Principle

Cooperation is our guiding principle, among single parents but also organizations and other populations. The conditions that make it difficult for single parents to perform their primary role of nurturer are far reaching and require the effort of many individuals and organizations that are already doing important work to change the course of persistent poverty and decimation of families and communities. Home-Hold takes its place among those organizations, and is committed to collaborative programmatic solutions.

Origin of the Home-Hold Name

For those without a stable home, the word "household" doesn't begin to convey the dream of having a home that can't be taken away. Home-Hold embodies values such as stability, permanence, pride and safety.