
DATE: Sunday, June 1, 1997                  TAG: 9706010057

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   92 lines

PROJECT MOVES CLIENTS FROM WELFARE TO WORK

A few weeks ago, 19-year-old Leilani Walker, a single mom and welfare recipient, believed she was facing a lifetime of ``dead-end jobs, not going anywhere'' with her life.

Now Walker reports to a part-time job three days a week and has re-ignited her dream of going to college and becoming a nurse.

And along the way, Walker is learning a little bit about what it takes to run a small business.

The changes in Walker's life are the result of the Family Empowerment Project, a new welfare-to-work program operated by Samaritan House, a regional nonprofit agency that helps the homeless.

The initiative is one of many springing up to help thousands of area people who will be required to work for their welfare benefits come Oct. 1, when Virginia welfare reform comes to Hampton Roads.

The Family Empowerment Project teaches homeless welfare recipients about resume-writing, grooming, punctuality, interviews and other job-readiness skills.

The counseling also has improved the self-confidence of the welfare recipients.

For clients, the key connections to work are through 90-day externships with local businesses or internships within Samaritan House.

``The program really has opened my eyes. Now I think I don't have to be sitting back as far as waiting. I've started pushing myself more and more,'' said Antionette Arrington, a 28-year-old single mother and recovering crack addict. She'll soon be starting in a Samaritan House internship.

And for businesses, the key feature is that they don't have to pay a salary; the Family Empowerment Project gives its clients $800 stipends for the course of their externships. The money comes from a $210,000 three-year federal grant, which will cover the program's expenses for 12 clients a year.

Not having to pay a salary ``was really instrumental for us,'' said Debbie Higgins, who agreed to provide Walker with an externship at her business, Impressions in Print, a specialty advertising company in Virginia Beach.

``Being a small business, you're always strapped for cash anyway, and the taxes and unemployment and all that stuff,'' said Higgins, a former Chesapeake schoolteacher who started her business about three years ago. ``To train someone could be costly. So this gives us an opportunity to see if she'll work out and to see if she'll be comfortable here. It's a great idea.''

Higgins also has been delighted with Walker and says there is a good chance she will offer her a regular job after the externship. Walker, who hopes to enter Norfolk State University this fall, says she'd love the chance to work her way through college.

Higgins' business hooked up with Samaritan House at a women's business and trade show a few months ago. Bertha Brown, the Family Empowerment Project's employment coach, attends such sessions to cultivate a network of potential employers for her clients. She continues to work with the clients through their externships.

``We first had reservations about whether we'd have the time to devote to train someone,'' said Higgins, whose only other employee is her daughter, Dawn Higgins. ``And a lot of people are leery when they hear that someone is from welfare. They're leery about what type of person are you getting. We also were.''

Dawn Higgins added: ``We didn't know what to expect.''

The younger Higgins said she was aware of the welfare reform debates but had never known a welfare recipient. ``You just don't run into it daily. It's not in your neighborhood, so you don't think about it too much.''

They took the chance. They needed help catching up with a growing backlog of filing work and other office chores.

And, said Dawn Higgins, ``It is very important that business owners and business people really take a lead.

``If we're going to sit back and complain about it and say our tax dollars are going to people who aren't working and try to change those laws, then we need to be active in employing and training and educating these people.''

The Higginses said they've found Walker to be a quick learner, a good organizer and someone with the knack to create attractive promotional displays of their company's products. They hope to expand her duties to research and marketing.

In turn, Walker said she's come to realize how hard business people work to make sure their companies thrive. It's made her better appreciate the value of education, she said, and she plans to take business courses in college as well as nursing.

She also discovered she likes the feeling of being depended upon.

Debbie and Dawn Higgins said they've recommended the program to other businesses, especially because of the government-paid externships.

``It's an incentive,'' Debbie Higgins said. ``In the short run, yes, it costs the taxpayers, but I look at things in the long run.

``One way or the other, we're going to end up paying.'' MEMO: For information about the Samaritan House Family Empowerment

Project, call 430-2642. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Leilani Walker, a participant in the Family Empowerment Project,

works for specialty advertising company in Virginia Beach.