Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510230062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
If anyone had any doubt about the seriousness of Virginia's new welfare plan, heed the experiences of Leighton Langford, director of the Bedford County Department of Social Services.
On Oct. 1, Bedford and Bedford County were two of six central Virginia localities that phased in the welfare plan's work component, requiring welfare recipients to begin working for their Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits within 90 days.
The Bedford County Department of Social Services - which handles welfare cases in the city and county - has since begun to prepare the welfare-dependent for employment. That has included assessing how ready recipients are to enter the work force.
Eight recipients were scheduled to attend a job assessment session with social services staff this week. Four showed up, Langford said. Four did not.
Those who didn't will not receive a November welfare check, Langford said.
The new welfare plan - called one of the strictest in the nation - requires recipients to sign an Agreement of Personal Responsibility. They agree to adhere to certain conditions of the plan - including job assessment participation - or face sanctions, such as the loss of one month of welfare benefits.
"Most of the recipients are used to the way it was under the old program," Langford said. "They have not internalized that sanctions will be immediate and swift - and severe."
Just before heading to Lynchburg on Friday to attend a meeting of a steering committee that is overseeing implementation of the new welfare-to-work plan in the Bedford-Lynchburg area, Langford had a terse phone conversation with a very angry recipient, one of the four who failed to show up for the job assessment session.
But Langford expected that kind of response. Change, particularly change from old welfare policy to a new one that cuts off recipients' AFDC benefits after two years and requires them to work for their benefits, involves "a cultural issue," Langford said.
Consider his analogy.
"Maybe you lived in a culture where everybody shaved their heads and suddenly you want everybody to grow their hair," he said. "It's really that basic, taking that much personal responsibility.
"It's not that they don't care. They don't know they should care."
Several of the recipients who missed the job assessment session told Langford they had trouble finding someone to watch their children. So for the next session, he plans to tell them to bring the children along. And he plans to have volunteer mentors on hand to call recipients the day before the session and the day of as a reminder.
Getting recipients motivated to work - and locating jobs - are Langford's first priorities.
His department has established two adult education classes for recipients with support from area industries. Sam Moore Furniture Industries is interested in establishing an upholstery class for recipients and in employing some of those who complete the class, he said.
The department is planning to fill a gap in Bedford-area services for the elderly through a geriatric nurse's aide class for recipients. The department also is exploring the development of a certified nursing assistant's class with the Bedford Hospital Foundation and the College of Health Sciences.
by CNB