THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502030260
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
A job training and child-care plan designed to help mothers permanently get off welfare has been proposed to Social Services Director Daniel Stone by five women, including two department employees.
The plan also could benefit city social workers by offering them on-site day care for their children.
Stone was enthusiastic but cautious after a briefing on the plan.
``I'm supportive of the concept,'' he said Wednesday. ``We need to expand efforts in day care if we're sincere about reform.''
But he added that the idea would have to be incorporated into any plan to renovate or replace the current Social Services building, which remains up in the air.
The proposal calls for the city to provide space for a child-care center in the social services building where licensed YMCA child-care staff would oversee workfare mothers aiming for a career in child care. City employees would pay a competitive rate to have their children cared for while children of mothers newly off welfare - and in danger of falling back through the cracks because of low starting wages - would be cared for free.
The estimated $90,000 it would cost the city in capital expenses to provide the new space would be recouped in one year through savings in welfare and food stamp payments, according to the five women who proposed the idea.
The women represent both the public and private sectors and are involved in work and child-care programs for welfare mothers: Teresa Stanley is chairperson for the Interfaith Advisory Board, Cathy Lowe and Nancy Hench work in the city's Social Services Department, and Hope Brock and Linda Lloyd-Zannini are YMCA child-care directors.
Child-care cost is ``the No. 1 issue preventing low-income women from working,'' said Lloyd-Zannini when the women met recently to finalize plans to present to Stone. ``Free child care is needed.''
Lowe agreed, saying that free child care is of paramount importance for ``those at the brink.'' When welfare moms get jobs they are usually for low pay. At the same time, medical and child care support systems go out from under them, making it next to impossible to make ends meet.
``So they have a choice, go on or quit and go back,'' said Lowe.
For the past year, the social services department and YMCA have been working hand in hand to help train workfare mothers for careers in child care. The new proposal is an outgrowth of that project.
Under the plan, the YMCA would license the center and the city would provide the space.
While Stone wants to seriously consider the plan, he cautioned that finding space could be a problem. The $2.7 million allocated for the social services building's renovation was found to be inadequate - the price tag turned out to be $4 million - and so the project was put on hold, said Stone.
Then, in December, the City Council voted to buy 1,200 acres from the failed development project known as Lake Ridge for $9.5 million and used $2.1 million earmarked for social services building renovations for the land purchase.
The solution to the department's space problem may be to relocate, leasing space from a private builder, said Stone. Such an approach might include the city health department in the same facility, he added. But it may be too late to include space for day care. Still, Stone said, a day care center could be situated in close proximity to a relocated social services building.
City Manager James Spore said Thursday that the city is formally soliciting requests from the private sector for property that can be leased for the social services and health departments and any requests to build a new facility.
The money, Spore said, would come from the Capital Improvements Program, which also includes leasing costs. Part of that money would be reimbursed by the state.
He said the city has no definite site in mind for relocating the departments.
The present building on Virginia Beach Boulevard and Little Neck Road is bursting at the seams, Spore said, adding that it has air quality and asbestos problems. by CNB