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By CECE TODD; Times Leader Staff Writer
Monday, February 05, 1996 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE — About 1,000 Luzerne County parents on welfare are going to
get help in their search for employment: a state pilot project that prepares
them for the job hunt and refers them to employers for interviews.
With federal welfare reform looming, the project is Pennsylvania’s attempt
to start changing a system that has traditionally handed people checks instead
of helping them become self-sufficient.
“It’s a rethinking of welfare,” said Nick Volpetti, director of the Luzerne
County Public Assistance Office.
“Now when a client comes in, instead of us saying, `What do you need?
Here’s what you’re eligible for,’ it will be, `What do you need? For how long?
And how soon can we get you to be no longer dependent on welfare?’ ”
During a January meeting of the Luzerne County commissioners, the county’s
human services director said the program meant 1,000 people were going to be
removed from public assistance.
But Thursday, Joseph Loftus-Vergari said that was not the case. “Obviously,
I received the preliminary plan or misinformation,” he said. “I’m certainly
sorry it happened.”
Not only are 1,000 people not losing their welfare checks, they are gaining
additional help and training that welfare has not offered them before. And
they might need that extra help if welfare reform proposals before Congress
become law.
“At this point, this project is not about saving money,” said Mary Ellen
Fritz, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg.
“We’re trying to prepare this population for changes we see coming from
Congress.”
Proposals before Congress would:
Set a five-year lifetime limit on how long parents can receive Aid to
Families with Dependent Children, the federal-state cash assistance program.
Require 85 percent of AFDC recipients to be working at least 20 hours a
week within two years. This provision would be retroactive to Oct. 1, 1995,
Fritz said.
“With the clock ticking for some people, we felt we needed to start
preparing them and seeing what ideas are going to work,” she said.
In each county, the department has identified welfare recipients who are
“job ready.” This means they have a high school diploma or equivalency
certificate and an employment history, and their children are 12 and older.
In Luzerne County, they represent 15 to 20 percent of the 5,000 to 6,600
people who receive cash assistance each month. More than 40,000 people in
Luzerne County receive some type of welfare — from cash assistance to food
stamps to long-term nursing care.
Cash assistance recipients targeted for the new program began receiving
notices last week for one-on-one meetings with the public assistance staff. In
those meetings, they learn that they are required to participate in a program
that will teach them to write resumes, dress for interviews and answer
prospective employers’ questions.
“The people targeted for this program are already required under federal
regulations to be in some kind of job training program,” Fritz said. “This
will just give them something extra.”
Across the state, 56,000 welfare recipients will participate in the pilot
program, expected to last six to nine months. The project is being funded
through the state Welfare Department’s job training budget.
Participants will continue to receive a welfare check while they receive
the special training 20 hours a week for eight weeks. An average family of
four in Luzerne County is eligible for $497 a month from the AFDC program.
“No one will lose their cash if they go to the training and try,” Fritz
said.
Parents of older children were targeted for the program because their
children should not need day care, said Mareen Brennan, co-supervisor of the
special employment project in Luzerne County.
The state has contracted with Catholic Social Services to train welfare
recipients in finding jobs. Executive Director Ned Delaney said his agency
will serve as a “personal employment cheerleader” of sorts.
Recipients also will be referred to specific jobs for interviews. Catholic
Social Services has developed a job file that lists openings in the area.
At the end of the program, those still unable to find jobs might be placed
on the workfare program, Volpetti said. Workfare participants receive welfare
checks, but are required to work a certain number of hours at non-profit or
government agencies in exchange for the money.
“The staff here will be very supportive,” Brennan said. “They’re going to
be true social workers.”