
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994                   TAG: 9405110090
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By RUTH ZIMMER HENDRICK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A WELFARE REFORM THAT'S WORKING

IN RESPONSE to David and Kathy Bordwine's April 20 letter to the editor (``The pain of losing an adoptive child'') questioning the existence of workshops to assist Aid to Families with Dependent Children families in obtaining training and employment:

I'd like to take the opportunity to broaden awareness of the Roanoke City Department of Social Services' Employment Services program. This federally funded, locally supported program is a component of most Social Service agencies in the state.

The Employment Services program works with all of the city's AFDC and food-stamp recipients who are deemed employable. After assessment and determination of the recipient's goals, they're placed in appropriate training, education or job-skills programs. Participation is monitored to show required progress, and participants are provided with day care, transportation and other assistance to make their success possible. Recipients not satisfactorily participating may have their grants reduced and food stamps stopped.

Our ultimate goal for each recipient is to help them obtain full-time, unsubsidized employment at a rate allowing them to permanently support their family without returning to public assistance. At any given time, our staff works with approximately 1,400 citizens.

One of our most successful programs, TRADE, helps place employment-ready recipients into above-minimum-wage positions. Employers receive a subsidy during the worker's training period, and Employment Services provides support to help the individual get on his or her feet and into a secure financial position. More than 75 percent of workers placed in TRADE positions during the past five years have remained self-sufficient and haven't returned to the AFDC rolls.

In a basic sense, the Employment Services program is welfare reform already in action - and working! Our goal is to provide up-front support to recipients so that they may become taxpayers. The program is too severely underfunded to be maximally successful. But I hope taxpayers find comfort in knowing that Roanoke supports a program that lessens their tax burden, and helps AFDC and food-stamp recipients gain motivation, self-esteem and skills to become employed taxpayers themselves.

Ruth Zimmer Hendrick is Employment Services supervisor for the Roanoke City Department of Social Services.

by CNB