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ABLE Families Affirming • Believing • Learning • Empowering |
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 OUR HISTORY ABLE Families is an undertaking in a long story of ministry endeavors of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling. In the early 1990s, the Sisters committed themselves to explore the needs of southern West Virginia. They resolved "To pilot a three-year program in rural West Virginia which provides people in need, particularly women and children, the skills and support to become contributing members of their community and stronger families, and to evaluate this pilot program for replication elsewhere."
After much deliberation, the decision was made to build. Groundbreaking was in October 1998, and the new building was dedicated on April 23, 1999. Building planning and construction was only part of the picture. New projects and programs to benefit low income families in our service area were developed. Various avenues for funding were vigorously explored. Our first computer training program was inaugurated with four machines. The Board continued to expand. We started the MIHOW program with four employees, two full time, two part time. Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College honored ABLE Families as an Outstanding Education Partner in 2000 and 2003
By 2005, with even more new programs in place, funding expanded, and new partnerships established, ABLE Families had constructed a new classroom building. Sister Janet Peterson and her colleague, Sister Brendan Conlon, received the Hova H. Underwood Award for Service to Children and the Humanitarians of the Year Award at the King Coal Festival in Williamson, WV. An article written by a reporter from the Washington Post generated a great deal of interest in ABLE Families nationally and caught the attention of donors. Unfortunately, Save the Children severed its connections in West Virginia in 2006, but our mission, programs and momentum remain strong and vital. |
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For two years an action team met and struggled. ABLE Families, Inc.
was incorporated in 1994, and Sr. Janet Peterworth was named Director
and moved to Mingo County. By 1995, ABLE Families had moved into
quarters above an associated charity and instituted its first program,
Energy Express. Board membership was expanded beyond the Sisters
of St. Joseph. The program was barely off the ground when the
announcement was made that the organization's building would be razed
for flood control.
In
2001 a grant from Verizon permitted a substantial computer lab upgrade,
and training was expanded. Also that year the West Virginia
Governor's Council on Literacy picked ABLE Families as an Outstanding
Literacy Program. By 2001 ABLE Families employed 15
people full or part time. We recruited literacy tutors and began
offering Survival Skills for Women. The next year, alliances with
Save the Children and the Arts Council offered new opportunities for
program development. In 2003 Save the Children honored our "Supper
in a Sack" nutrition program as a Promising Practice.