THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 2, 1995 TAG: 9501020047
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Cable television subscribers will have the chance to talk with Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. on Tuesday night about improving the state's welfare system.
Hunt will discuss his efforts to reform the system and will take telephone calls from North Carolinians during a statewide cable television call-in from 9 to 10 p.m.
The OpenNet show will include an hour of the welfare task force's public hearing in Durham on Dec. 20, from 8 to 9 p.m., followed by Hunt.
The governor will appear on OpenNet with Robin Britt, secretary of the Department of Human Resources, who serves on Hunt's Welfare Reform Task Force.
The task force, formed by Hunt this fall, is studying ways to change the welfare system and is scheduled to recommend specific legislative proposals early in the year. The task force is made up of 32 North Carolinians from businesses, social services and government, as well as welfare recipients.
The task force, whose recommendations are expected to focus on helping families move from welfare to the work force, will also seek suggestions at public hearings in eastern North Carolina.
Meetings will be held in Wilmington Tuesday and Greenville Thursday to hear suggestions on how the state can help welfare recipients get the education, job training and other skills they need to get jobs.
The first task force hearing earlier this month attracted dozens of people who lined up at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg government center to tell the committee members how to change the welfare system.
Some of the solutions offered at that meeting included:
Health insurance and day care for children of working parents, which would help someone in the transition from welfare into the work force.
Stricter enforcement of child support payments.
Training programs to help people get jobs, and jobs after welfare recipients complete their training. ILLUSTRATION: CALL-IN SHOW
OpenNet is produced by the Agency for Public Telecommunications, a
division of the state Department of Administration, and will be
carried on the Open Public Events Network. To talk with Gov. James
B. Hunt Jr. about welfare reform during the program, call (919)
733-6341. Collect calls are accepted. Here's a list of cable systems
in the area that carry OpenNet and the channel for the show:
Bath, Red's Cable TV, Channel 6.
Hatteras, Falcon Cable, Channel 10.
Kill Devil Hills, Falcon Cable, Channel 20.
Roanoke Rapids, Roanoke Rapids Telecable, Channel 10.
Washington, Multimedia Cable, Channel 7.
by CNB