ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR THE ROANOKE TIMES
On Oct.1, an estimated 1,500 people in the Roanoke and New River valleys will have 90 days to find work.
In December, Gov. George Allen announced that he was speeding up the timetable for phasing in VIEW, the component of Virginia's welfare plan that requires people to work for their monthly welfare checks.
Allen said localities were "champing at the bit" to jump on VIEW - the Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare. So he stepped up the schedule, estimating that the acceleration could save $77.5 million in welfare costs.
And what wasn't scheduled to make its debut in the Roanoke and New River valleys until April 1, 1999, is now scheduled to be phased in Oct.1 this year.
It means that people in both regions who on Oct.1 are receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and are not exempted from VIEW must be working in a paid or volunteer job by Jan.1 to continue receiving their checks.
It means that local social services departments are busily mapping strategies to make the transition from welfare to work as smooth as possible for those people - about 1,700 at last count, nearly 800 in Roanoke alone.
It means departments are having to search for child-care providers - particularly those who can care for the children of night-shift workers - and businesses willing to hire people moving off the welfare rolls, some who have never worked.
It means that departments have been encouraged to convert their offices from comforting places that have lobbies cluttered with magazines and children's toys into "employment agencies" where videotapes promoting Virginia's welfare-to-work plan play in lobbies instead.
It means they are working to get clients to think work instead of welfare.
``It's a major shift in the way we think, how we present ourselves to our clients - I'm sorry, `customers,''' Ruth Hendrick, supervisor of employment services for the Roanoke Department of Social Services, said at a regional welfare steering committee meeting last week in Craig County. The word ``client'' has been wiped from social services terminology and replaced with "customer" or ``job-seeker.''
``It's a new world,'' Bill Wilcher, director of the Craig County Department of Social Services, said. ``Times have changed.''
The Roanoke and New River region is the largest and probably the most diverse in welfare population of the state's 18 economic development districts. For that reason, the district that encompasses the Roanoke and New River valleys was split into two groups for planning purposes.
Each group received $50,000 in welfare planning money from the Virginia Department of Social Services. The entire region initially was to receive that amount, but local social services departments pressed the state to give each of the two groups $50,000.
The Roanoke-area group covers Roanoke, Covington, Clifton Forge, and Roanoke, Botetourt, Craig and Alleghany counties. The New River group covers Radford, and Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties. Both groups have formed steering committees - its members representing social services departments and community service agencies - to oversee the change from old welfare system to new.
The Roanoke-area committee met last week in New Castle - the third of a series of monthly meetings - to continue fine-tuning its regional welfare-to-work plan.
Crucial to the plan's success is teaching clients that welfare is a temporary program and that wage-earning work is their future, committee members said.
Hendrick said social services caseworkers must not only help clients shift their mindset and find jobs, but also help them keep those jobs.
"At this time, going out and getting a job is not the problem," she said. "It's keeping those jobs. That's where we're putting a lot of our energies."
The committee is just beginning to tap businesses for employment opportunities for people who must soon work for their welfare benefits. One committee member - using as an example last week's announcement that Maple Leaf Bakery will be building a plant in Roanoke and employing 180 people - suggested that new businesses locating in the Roanoke Valley be made aware of the welfare-to-work initiative and make an effort to consider people moving off welfare as job candidates.
The committee approved several strategies Tuesday. They include:
Developing a community involvement brochure that explains the welfare-to-work plan and how people can help.
Holding several mini-forums for businesses, churches, community service agencies, civic groups and interested citizens.
Developing a guidebook on how the community can participate.
Holding informational breakfasts and luncheons with clients.
Virginia's welfare-to-work plan requires most TANF recipients to begin working for their benefits 90 days after their locality phases in the VIEW program. After two years, their checks will be cut off but they will continue to be eligible for some assistance, such as transportation and child care, for a third year.
The plan requires recipients to stay off the welfare rolls for two years. After that, they can reapply for benefits for another two years.
Benefits are limited to five years in a lifetime under the new federal welfare policy.
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