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

DATE: TUESDAY, January 24, 1995                   TAG: 9501240086
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FATHER HARRY B. SCOTT III
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CUTTING COMMUNITY ACTION IS AT ODDS WITH WELFARE REFORM

I emphatically support the work of Gov. George Allen, Health and Human Resources Secretary Kay Cole James, and the Governor's Commission on Citizen Empowerment and its recently issued report. I am concerned about the proposed budget cut for the Community Action agencies. In my judgment, the two are inextricably linked.

Welfare reform is an important item on the political agenda both in Virginia and throughout the nation. Most people have come to understand that many well-intentioned programs associated with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty have had devastingly detrimental effects on the very people they aimed to help. In attempting to put an end to material need for many Americans they instead created an insidious form of slavery entrapping thousands of families in a bureaucratic nightmare from which it remains difficult to emerge.

We see the end result: an alarming decline in the stability of the family (including the rise of illegitimacy and the attitude that fathers are unnecessary after conception); rising crime; drugs; personal irresponsibility; and the belief that the government is the major solution to social problems.

To me, one of the most telling truths in this debacle is the fact that most people on welfare devoutly desire not to be there. Most, though sadly not all, of the people I work with and many that I have listened to want to be productive citizens, working and raising their children in a responsible manner and in a safe environment. They do not want to be wards of the state.

The Empowerment Commission has sought to address this in its work. All Virginians can agree with Gov. Allen when he says people need a hand up, not a handout.

As we citizens seek to return personal responsibility and accountability to all Virginians (in effect, to give to those ensnared in welfare their lives back), we must, with the Empowerment Commission, recognize a necessary transition time as welfare recipients become self-reliant. Again, with the commission, we will need to have a safety net in our communities to meet emergency needs as local groups and individuals assume more responsibility for local concerns and problems.

The one agency that not only stands poised to serve both these functions but is presently engaged in assisting people to self-sufficiency and providing emergency help is Community Action. In the Roanoke Valley, this is TAP. Working with the less fortunate in Montgomery County for more than 20 years has given me an intimate knowledge of our own New River Community Action, operating in Montgomery, Floyd, Giles and Pulaski counties and the city of Radford. Self-help has been a watchword for as long as I have been there.

Community Action agencies have sponsored and brought to fruition such programs as SHARE (a food co-operative), Habitat for Humanity and the Free Clinic, in addition to Head Start, community outreach and other activities that bring the community together to solve problems locally. Self-reliance with a local safety-net is precisely what our Community Action agencies provide. They are strategically placed to be in the vanguard of welfare reform, to play a leading role in carrying out the vision set forth by the Empowerment Commission and the governor. We need their continued presence and work in our commonwealth.

Funding for Community Action should be restored at least to its present level in the budget that the legislature will adopt.

For our part, in the New River Valley, the proposed cuts in funding will necessitate a drastic reduction in present services, services that aim at self-reliance and self-sufficiency. (The present level of funding from the commonwealth accounts for 25 percent of the administration budget that pays for the community-service workers who provide direct client services.)

The welfare-reform plan proposed by the Empowerment Commission will be much more difficult to implement without the presence of Community Action agencies operating, at a minimum, at their current level and strength, which will require continued funding by the commonwealth. If we are serious about freeing Virginians from the shackles of welfare and giving them their lives back, then this new budget cannot cut off the one kind of agency uniquely placed in the community to foster and support this effort - the community-action agencies throughout the commonwealth.

Father Harry B. Scott III of Christiansburg is rector of St. Peter's Anglican Catholic Church and a member of the Governor's Commission on Citizen Empowerment.