Three area agencies are working together to bring a thriving GED program to Staunton. The Staunton Helping Hands Center hosts the space and helps provide supplies, but the educators and program specifics are brought together by the Regional Office of Education and Lewis and Clark Community College. For more information about this program, call LCCC 618-468-4141 to reserve your seat.

Sessions regularly meet from 4 to 7 p.m. at 217 W. Main Street in Staunton. An open orientation session was held on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 4 p.m.

The Staunton Helping Hands Center provides the overhead of this meeting space, with funding made possible by New Hope Baptist Church in Worden and Net Community Church in Staunton.

Fundraising and budgeting for this space is kept separate from the regular SHHC food pantry budget. When someone makes a donation to the SHHC, those funds are directly utilized for the food pantry. If someone would like to specifically support the GED program space, those donations should be designated separately as such.

Recently, an expansion project was made possible by New Hope and Net Church, as well as a grant through the Selma J. Hartke Foundation. New flooring, trim, and supplies were added after two walls were removed, in order to make more space for the growing program. Special thanks to the team of volunteers that did the demolition and rebuilding for the space: Robert Semanik, Tony Banovz, Danny Scroggins, Sr., Lori Semanik and Ailee Taylor.