Maria Faw rubbed her aching hands, but after a morning of typing exercises, she didn't want to take even a five-minute break.
"You get in the mood, I guess," she said Monday in a makeshift classroom at West Baltimore's Lexington Terrace public housing development.
Ms. Faw, a 29-year-old mother of four, is in the mood for more than typing. She and eight classmates in a medical transcription training program are ready to get jobs and get out of public housing.
The women are the first participants in Back to Basics, a program designed to train public housing residents to transcribe doctors' handwritten notes for medical records. The program, funded with $100,000 in city and federal funds and $15,000 from Signet Bank, is one of several around the city and state that teach job skills to people on public assistance.
The program has had a rocky start. It's only half-filled, because some applicants failed drug tests and other potential students are trying to find day care, says the program's co-director, the Rev. Althinia Hunt. The transcription classes, scheduled to begin in November, have been delayed until January because of the shortage of participants.
Despite the delays, Ms. Hunt smiled brightly as she surveyed the participants sitting in donated chairs, practicing typing at donated computers, in an apartment transformed into a classroom by donated material and volunteer laborers.
"Thank, God," she breathed.
The class is the culmination of three years of persistence by Ms. Hunt and her partner in ministry, the Rev. Vera C. Waters. The co-pastors of Joshua Generation Church wanted to serve more than the spiritual needs of Baltimore's public housing residents.
"People want to work; people want out; people want to have their own home," Ms. Hunt said. "The opportunity is not there because of lack of educational skills."
With that in mind, the ministers went looking for supporters. Signet Bank offered computers and assistance early on; city agencies, companies and the University of Maryland Medical Center came aboard later. Instructors are hired from Baltimore City Community College.
Those already enrolled will spend the next few weeks practicing typing and attending workshops in banking skills and homeownership opportunities. Transcription training and courses in English, math, and "workplace literacy" will begin in January, when organizers hope to have a full class of 18.
The first year's graduates will qualify for positions as transcriptionists with the medical center.
And, although the program is funded through September, Ms. Hunt is looking well into the future. She wants Back to Basics to operate as a contractor in medical transcription, generating its own operating funds.
Ms. Faw and her classmates already have high hopes for the program.
"After the program is over and we have our jobs and everything, I want to be one to say that I was one to make this program happen," Ms. Faw said during a break in typing class last week. She regrets leaving her last job -- as a credit-card authorization clerk in 1991 -- but is grateful for this opportunity.
"They give you a lot of motivation," she added. "It's like a family; they work with us."