THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The talking's over, the sleeves are rolled up and a grass-roots group advocating what it calls compassionate and common-sense welfare reform got down to business Monday.
Planning began for saturation lobbying of local legislators, political mentoring of welfare recipients and a ``creative alternative:'' a job fair to match recipients with employers and entry-level jobs.
The Coalition for the Common Wealth spent the fall and winter largely organizing and educating itself. It took a stab at late-session lobbying at the General Assembly in Richmond, with modest results.
Now organizers and about a dozen others in the group - representatives from public, private and church-related community organizations who work with the poor - said they want to take the next step of acting on their concerns.
``What are we going to do now to effect the change we are looking for?'' is how one of the organizers, Patrice Schwermer, the social minister at St. Pius X Church in Norfolk, opened the meeting at the YWCA.
First up is an effort to establish relationships with all of the area's state representatives.
Crowding around large sheets of paper taped to the wall bearing lawmakers' names, coalition members at Monday's meeting signed their names - two per lawmaker - committing to make regular contact with the representatives through the 1997 General Assembly.
State Sen. Yvonne B. Miller also urged members to buddy up with welfare recipients and others who are directly affected by the coming changes. If necessary, this could include coalition members helping the recipients write letters, make appointments and testify at hearings.
``The other thing you have to make them understand is that they are not using their political sense,'' said Miller, a Democrat from Norfolk and a sharp critic of Virginia's welfare reforms.
``If they're not registered to vote, if they're not involved in the political process, they're going to continue to be the ones they do it to.''
The senator castigated the reforms being phased in across the state - which generally call for two-year limits on benefits - saying they were too inflexible and that the poor were being made ``public scapegoats'' for society's problems and treated like ``disposable tissues to be thrown away.''
Coalition members said their goal is to eliminate the aspects of welfare reform that they see hurting people instead of helping them. They're also concerned that such measures could wind up hurting others by creating additional social problems, such as a family made homeless because its benefits were stopped.
``What affects a poor person - I don't want to make it look like it doesn't affect me,'' said Teresa Stanley, social minister at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Virginia Beach and a coalition organizer. ``We're all in this together.''
The group came up with a short list of lobbying issues to focus on, including making more child care available so recipients would be freer to get needed job training or schooling or take a job; waiving an eight-hour-a-week work requirement for single parents engaged in full-time training or school, so they'll have more time for their families; and passing an earned-income tax credit to help low-income workers survive without welfare.
Eventually, the coalition wants to see the state allow the ``packaging of income'' - gradually reducing benefits as income increases, rather than simply cutting off all benefits at a set time.
KEYWORDS: WELFORM REFORM VIRGINIA by CNB