`WELFARE TO WORK' PROGRAMS COULD BOLSTER WORK FORCE

"It's time to go to work."

This is the focus of new programs which have been established by the Missouri Department of Social Services' Division of Family Services to help welfare recipients find jobs.

The "Welfare to Work" programs could provide as many as 725 new employees to the Cape Girardeau County work force.

"We currently have three programs designed to help people receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children find jobs," said Frances Gould, county director of DFS.

Gould, DFS supervisor Linda Jones and Joyce Holekamp, a jobs placement specialist with the DFS Futures program, were speakers at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee Friday. They discussed the three employment programs for welfare recipients: Work Supplementation, Direct Job Placement, and Community Work Experience.

The chamber coffee was held a week late this month due to the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, which was held the first Friday of March.

Welfare reform legislation calling for employable AFDC recipients to find work was adopted by the state in 1994. If persons in certain categories refuse to seek or accept employment, they go under "sanction" status and could lose some of their cash welfare benefits, Gould said.

She explained that children involved in aid programs would not suffer. "It's the parent or guardian who could lose certain benefits," she said.

House Bill 1547, signed by Gov. Mel Carnahan in July 1994, was designed to reform the state's welfare system and provide incentives for people to become self-sufficient.

It is the intent of the legislation to move long-term welfare recipients from welfare rolls to payrolls.

"The legislation shifted the welfare focus from "`receiving funds' to `go to work,'" said Gould. The back-to-work programs that have followed are geared to put people in the work force, some of them for the first time.

"We have put together a Self Sufficiency Team," said Gould. "This team is made up of community leaders working to get the programs off to a good start here."

A total of 558 families in Cape County are recipients of AFDC cash benefits, Gould said. Of those families, 200 members have been placed on "mandatory" (available for work) status. More than 2,100 families receive food stamps in the county, with 527 family members on mandatory status.

"That gives the work force a total of 727 people available for employment," said Gould.

One of the Wages Not Welfare work programs is the Wage Supplementation Program.

"We have three employers working with us on this program at the present time," said Jones, who serves as a liaison from the welfare office to the employers. "We can use more."

The wage supplementation program is a partnership between employers and DFS, notes Jones. "It creates incentives for employers to hire welfare recipients into "`new jobs.'"

"This is not meant to fill current jobs with welfare recipients," said Gould. "This is for companies who are adding new jobs and provides a pool of potential employees to new and/or expanding businesses."

An employer receives $267 a month from the state to pay each AFDC employee. The employer agrees to pay an equal amount to the employee.

Persons working in the supplemented job will receive Medicaid coverage during a nine-month period. Child care and assistance in transportation and support services also are provided by the DFS to strengthen the new employees' chances for success.

The purpose of the direct job placement program is to create job opportunities. The potential employees fall under the same guidelines as any person seeking a job, said Gould.

"We offer training and prepare the potential employees for job interviews," said Holekamp. "We work with employers and Missouri Job Service to make arrangements for interviews.

"We want this program to succeed," said Holekamp. "We already have a couple of success stories here."

Holekamp said the program is monitored. "We want to know if there are any problems, and we want to know if everything is moving smoothly."

There has been some speculation that hiring a AFDC recipient would cost an employer as much as $7 to $8 an hour.

This is not the case, points out Gould. "If minimum wage is where any person is required to start in the job, that's where the AFDC person would start."

The big problem, said Gould, is child care and transportation. "We have no public transportation here and child care costs are high. Actually, a minimum wage job could create some problems," she said.

A third type of employment program is the Community Work Experience.

"This is an `on the job training' program," said Gould. "Welfare recipients will fill temporary jobs at no salary in order to obtain basic skills and training.

"We are seeing strong interest in the new programs, and this is encouraging," said Gould.

Anyone interested in obtaining additional information concerning the programs may contact Gould, Jones or Holekamp at the local DFS office.