Dealing with the day-to-day crises facing homeless mothers -- many struggling with domestic violence, drug abuse and mental illness -- does not afford much time for looking at the future. Officials at HEARTH, a nonprofit program for homeless women and children in Ross, knew they still needed to look strategically at fund raising and other support to keep going over the long term.

	Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette Barb Smith, shown at her home in Marshall, has been named a Jefferson Award winner for her volunteer work with homeless women and children. Click photo for larger image. Related articles Jefferson Awards: She finds lessons of life in helping the dying Jefferson Awards: Two young men give back to group that saved them Coming Monday: Jefferson awardee Summer Tissue.

So a few years ago HEARTH's former board chair Barb Smith tackled the problem head on, pushing through the adoption of an outcomes model to study -- and prove -- the program's successes. Showing that model to supporters would make it easier to raise money, provide staff with a guide for helping future clients and help HEARTH evaluate itself.

"I wanted to tell people I know it works. I could anecdotally say it works, but I couldn't give you that number -- that 90-something percent of the women leave with permanent housing, this percent leave with jobs, this percent increase their education level," Mrs. Smith said recently. "Hard numbers really show it really does work."

It does. After leaving HEARTH ("Homelessness Ends with Advocacy, Resources, Training and Housing"), 84 percent go on to permanent housing, 75 percent to full-time jobs, 100 percent increase their education and 95 percent increase their income. Since its new center opened on Perrysville Avenue in 1995, 143 mothers and 264 children have gone through the program, executive director Judy Eakin said.

Much of that success is due to the work Mrs. Smith has done in more than 14 years volunteering for the organization, garnering her a 2006 Jefferson Award for Public Service.

"As a recently elected board chair," wrote Jerry Drozynski, who followed Smith onto the board and nominated her for the award, "I feel as if Barb Smith has built a rocket, loaded it with fuel and handed me the keys."

Mrs. Smith is one of seven 2006 Jefferson Award winners to be honored at a dinner Jan. 25. At the ceremony, WOMEN of Southwestern Pennsylvania Inc. will give Mrs. Smith $1,000 to donate to HEARTH.

Working as a Junior League volunteer, Mrs. Smith started giving her time to the then-North Hills Affordable Housing in the early 1990s, helping the homeless fill out paperwork to find apartments. She was still volunteering for the group in 1995 when it turned the former St. Benedict's Academy into its own transitional housing site for homeless mothers.

Mrs. Smith, who is 46 but could pass for 20 years younger, lives a few miles north in Marshall.

"People look at this area," she said, "and think there aren't any homeless. There really is a need."

HEARTH is unique for reasons beyond its suburban location. It is the only bridge-housing program in Allegheny County that takes in up to four children, including boys up to seniors in high school, who are often frowned upon by housing agencies.

It is not an emergency shelter. After going through entrance interviews, women are provided private apartments in the HEARTH compound for up to two years, while receiving assistance in education, job-training, child care and other self-sufficiency needs.

Women sit down with counselors, set self-sufficiency goals and meet weekly to go over them. There is not much turnover -- 15-20 families go through the intensive program each year, each receiving about 3,000 hours of services annually.

Mrs. Smith became a board member in 1995 and president three years later, leading the organization until 2005. She worked more than 20 hours a week at HEARTH while her husband, Charlie, a partner at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Green Tree, took the lead in looking after their three children.

"One of the reasons I stuck with it and my husband stuck with it is, we always say we give them a hand up, not a handout. If the women aren't willing to work, then it's not for them.

"It's not like we're just going to give you things while you live here for two years. They're required to be in an education program. They have to work for their independence and self-sufficiency. It's about giving them the opportunity to do that; it's not doing it for them. They still have to do it for themselves, but proving that supportive system works and giving them what they need to be successful, that's what it's all about."

The irony about all this self-learning is while HEARTH was pushing its clients through all this education, counseling, goal-setting and renewal, the organization itself could not chart its progress.

Mrs. Smith and Ms. Eakin attended months of training on devising the outcomes model that would eventually chart its work, measuring seven homeless categories -- skill development, education, employment, continual employment, income, housing, child care and transportation -- and how HEARTH's programs helped with them.

She also led efforts to redesign the program's Web site (www.hearth-bp.org) and adopt a long-term plan for expanding its services.

Typically, she plays down the accomplishments.

The success of HEARTH "is a team effort of the staff on the front lines every day, the volunteers and board members. I don't feel like I've done anything more than any of the other board members," she said.

"I feel I've had a very fortunate life, very good parents and a very supportive family that put me through college, educated me and have always been there for me. ... I feel fortunate do something that means something to me -- to help other people -- because I haven't had to work. My husband supports our family, and he has supported me in being able to stick with the organization and do something I think is really important. I feel like I've had a pretty easy life."