WELFARE-REFORM CONFERENCE SET

Welfare reform will be the focus of a free, interactive video conference with lawmakers and organizational heads next week.

The conference will broadcast from Jefferson City from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. Eleven sites, including one at the Cape Girardeau County Extension Center in Jackson, are to participate.

University Extension officials "called and asked certain areas in the state to host the downlink, and we told them we would like to participate," said Mary Gosche, human-development specialist for the center. She said she expects 30 or more people to participate locally.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Citizens for Missouri's Children, the United Way of Greater St. Louis, and University of Missouri Extension and Outreach. The groups hope to educate Missourians about new federal welfare-reform proposals being considered during the 1997 Missouri legislative session.

"The federal welfare-reform law that was signed in August 1996, ended a 60-year entitlement to welfare benefits," said Beth Griffin, executive director of Citizens for Missouri's Children. "We must assess how many parents are incapable of working, however, and assure that their children are not harmed. Furthermore, if all able-bodied parents are to work, there must be appropriate jobs for them, and someone must be available to provide care for their children."

Griffin and others are concerned that children will be the casualties as complex budget and policy decisions are hammered out in the legislature. Gosche said the conference will help people to understand the important issues surrounding the reform and how welfare reform will impact children.

Featured speakers during the conference include state Reps. Michael R. Gibbons, Sheila Lumpe and Charles Quincy Troupe; state Sen. Joe Maxwell; Griffin; Lou De Feo, executive director of Missouri Catholic Conference; Missouri Division of Family Services Director Carmen Schulze; and Mike Hartmann, Gov. Mel Carnahan's deputy chief of staff.