- December 16, 2025
After Jean Cordero’s husband of 41 years died in 2011, she didn’t think there was a place for her in the world.
She needed a job but hadn’t worked in nearly a decade. She was alone but hadn’t dated since her teens. She joined bereavement groups, but all they did was leave her feeling stagnant.
And then she joined Daytona State College’s Fresh Start Program.
“I mostly took (the course) to beef up my resume — because I do need to go back to work — and also as an excuse to get out of the house,” she said. “But I just got so much out of (it). … It takes you a step out of your grief and into the light, I guess you can say. It showed that there was something still out there for each and every one of us.”
After being suspended in Palm Coast following 2009 state budget cuts, the Fresh Start Program for displaced homemakers got a second wind at the end of last year. The most recent session started Monday, April 23.
“The program is for women who are separated, divorced or widowed and now they’re on their own and have to figure out how to support themselves,” said Marydale Parmerter, Fresh Start recruiter and vocational specialist who runs Palm Coast’s Center for Women and Men.
Fresh Start is also for women who have never been married but have dependents. The three-week course is free and open to women 35 years or older who need help getting back into school or work.
Parmerter refers to this group as “women in transition.”
“All of a sudden, (these women) are thrust into the workforce and they’re lost,” she said. “They don’t have job experience, a resume — anything — and this program gets them all in order.”
And Parmerter should know. A former Fresh Start student, she graduated from the course last May, in Daytona Beach. Then, when the Palm Coast campus was looking to relaunch Fresh Start, she applied for a job.
Now she is a specialist.
“I’m a perfect example: I took the Fresh Start Program and I hadn’t worked for about nine years,” Parmerter said. “After applying to many, many places, I got the job at the college. And I would have never gotten that job — or any job — if I hadn’t taken Fresh Start.”
Nine years ago, she did some telemarketing, customer service and was a welfare case manager.
Eight years ago, Cordero was an adviser for a publishing company. Since graduating Fresh Start in February, however, she still hasn’t been able to find work. But she’s OK with that, because now, she says, at least she has her confidence.
“I will be definitely going back to work,” she said. She has even started dating again — something she thought was “not a possibility before the program.”
Theresa Garro, another Fresh Start graduate, also lauds the program’s transformative power.
“It was the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life,” she said. “It completely changed my whole perspective … I realized, first of all, that I wasn’t alone. … And it helped lead me in the direction I needed to go in my life.”
Garro, a single mother of six who hadn’t worked in five years, discovered through Fresh Start that she wanted to be a nurse. Now, she’s taking courses for her associate’s degree and pulling all A’s. She also says her former group mates have become her new closest friends.
“I’m going to work my way, no matter how long it takes,” she said. “It’s going to be worth it, because I’ll know I’ll be able to take care of my family.”
Teaching basic job skills — resume-writing, portfolio-creation and professional dress — Fresh Start is part of Daytona State’s Center for Women and Men. Although it does not include job placement, it offers the support of career-transition specialists and counselors to help students apply for scholarships and enroll in college courses.
“Many displaced homemakers don’t have high school diplomas or a GED, because they spent their lives taking care of others,” Parmerter said. “A lot of them have self-esteem issues, confidence issues. … So they need to get back on their feet mentally. … Half of the course focuses on managing stress and learning self-awareness — on figuring out you.”
The program also teaches the online-application process, customer service skills, goal-setting and career exploration.
Funded through private donations and a Florida Department of Economic Opportunity grant, Fresh Start has graduated 35 women since being reinstated in Palm Coast. It hosts about 10 students per session, but as the newest of Daytona State’s three programs, Flagler’s Fresh Start still has room to grow.
“We can take a lot more,” Parmerter said. “The program is here, right here in the Flagler Palm Coast area … but people don’t know about it.”
In support of Fresh Start, local businesses have also partnered with the college.
“This is a wonderful cause and it brings hope to the people who are 35-plus and in desperate need of work,” said Tim Dudkewic, co-owner of E’lan Hair Salon, which donates a free gift bag, plus a free wash, cut and style to every program graduate.
“It is our way of boosting their confidence and giving them self-worth by knowing that they look great before interviews,” he added.
Palm Coast Curves also donates two free months of membership to all graduates.
According to Parmerter, the first portion of every Fresh Start session is more like a support group than a training seminar. The teacher, Nikki White, is also a mental-health counselor, and all classes are confidential.
“Before we even do any (training), we have to get through the emotional issues first,” Parmerter said.
“We have to cultivate the right mindset, that ‘I’m capable. I’m deserving. My past is not my future.’”
To reflect that mission, the program identifies itself with a butterfly symbol, a logo which is printed on buttons given to every graduating student.
“There are a lot of women who, often, just can’t get out of bed, because they’re broken,” Parmerter said.
“They know (change) is not going to happen overnight, but they have what they need now to go out: the confidence, the self-esteem, the tools they got from the class to get up and face the world.”
“The Daytona State program is the only one I know of that does this sort of thing in our area,” said Rick Fraser, president of the Center for Business Excellence. But according to statistics, he said, the number of displaced homemakers — a group the CBE’s One-Stop Employment Center refers to Fresh Start — has not increased since the recession.
Since 2007, the percent of women to men registering for employment services through the CBE has stayed fairly consistent, at 50% each. Even in 2009-2010, when the total number of enrollees jumped from about 35,000 to about 53,000, the breakdown still stayed relatively level, at 53% men and 47% women.
“The economy hit everybody,” Fraser said.
To further aid students, Fresh Start also has a clothes closet, from which graduates can take three outfits to keep for interviews. It offers financial workshops, as well, and when job fairs or leads come in, administrators spread the word.
“The group was much more than just getting us ready to go back into the work world — and that’s originally all I thought I was going for,” Cordero said. “It just changed me a lot. And I’m finally starting to move forward.”
Cordero has become such an advocate for the group that she even sometimes carries Fresh Start brochures around with her in her purse. If she’s out and sees a mother with her kids, looking frazzled and lost, she’ll stop and say, “You know, there’s this program … ”
“I’m going to be 60 next month, so I’m still not old enough for Social Security,” Cordero added. “And my husband’s pension was cut in half when he died … so I definitely need to go back to work. … And think I have a lot to offer still.”
So does Garro.
“It’s life-changing. It really, really is. If you really take the time … you’re going to shine,” she said. “Nobody would regret going into this program. You can only come out being better than what you were before.”
GET BACK IN THE GAME
Since funding to Daytona State College’s Fresh Start Program in Palm Coast was reinstated October 2011, five class sessions have been offered. Courses are also available in Daytona Beach and Deltona, with Flagler sessions running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The next session is July 9 to July 27, with three follow-ups in August, September and October. Some students, like Adrian Rushin, even take Fresh Start more than once.
“I first enrolled in the class in 2006 and I graduated,” Rushin said. “I came back this time to get more confidence and freshen up on my resume and just learn some more about myself.”
For more, call 246-4871.
