THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605180283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Ten years on welfare. That was more than long enough for Joyce Mills, a single mother of two school-age girls. It made this job-training program at Maryview Medical Center seem pretty good.
Mills wouldn't get paid for the 13 weeks she'd work, but she'd still receive welfare benefits. And she'd walk out with 13 weeks of on-the-job experience, and a current job and current references on her resume. All that might increase her chances of landing a paid position somewhere, of finally getting her family off public assistance.
Maybe, if she performed well, the hospital would even keep her on.
It had worked that way for others. Since 1983, the hospital on High Street had cooperated with Portsmouth Human Services as one of the placement sites for the Employment Services Program, which strives to get welfare recipients ready for paying jobs.
The hospital had hired some 50 people out of the program since 1990, out of more than 400 participants, said Helena Gourdine-Thorpe, the program's work-experience coordinator for Human Services. More than a quarter of Maryview's current cafeteria staff came through the program, and almost two-thirds of housekeeping.
Gourdine-Thorpe matches the 125 or so clients in her program at any given time with volunteer work-experience positions at Maryview as well as the city's public schools, city government offices, Community Services Board, churches, private day care centers and Human Services itself.
Overall, the program sees about 9 percent of the participants hired where they were placed for work-experience training, and 20 percent overall hired somewhere during their training time, Gourdine-Thorpe said.
With Virginia's welfare reforms and its mandatory limits on benefits due to reach Hampton Roads in 1998, social workers increasingly are looking for such private-sector help in preparing and hiring welfare clients.
It's not easy for many. Welfare recipients and social workers long have complained about the shortage of entry-level jobs that pay enough to support families.
Gourdine-Thorpe sees an answer in more cooperative training efforts like Maryview's.
``We'd like to develop positive relationships with other organizations,'' she said. ``The problem is getting the word out.''
At Maryview, staffers train anywhere from one to 14 welfare clients.
The trainees don't do medical work, but they help cook and prepare patients' food trays in the kitchen, serve employees and visitors in the cafeteria, and distribute linens in housekeeping - necessary jobs that keep hospitals running.
The Maryview staff is frank about it - the program provides them with free labor. But serving its neighbors is also part of the hospital's mission, a part it takes seriously.
``It's good to help those in need,'' said Shirley Nagrocki, an employment specialist at the hospital. ``This was another way to help the community.''
``We try not to save all the yucky jobs for them,'' added Debbie Biller-Antine, who heads Maryview's non-medical services. ``We try to train them.''
Many come to Maryview with little or no work experience. They're screened by Human Services, which tries to match people with appropriate jobs.
Participants wear uniforms and identification badges like regular hospital employees. If they miss two days in a row, they can be penalized, such as having their food stamps cut.
Eight out of 10 successfully complete the program.
The skills they learn in the kitchen, in the cafeteria and in housekeeping can transfer to other jobs. ``But you have to have that willing attitude to want to work and succeed,'' Mills said.
Graduates of the program have a leg up on others when it comes to hiring because they're known quantities, and they're already trained. ``They know where the salt and pepper is, and where the mop is beside the refrigerator,'' said Edna Newby, the hospital's cafeteria coordinator. ``We prefer to hire them.''
This has been especially true since September. Thirty-eight welfare recipients have gone through the program, and 37 have been hired full- or part-time. The state Department of Social Services recently commended Maryview for its long-term partnership with Human Services.
``Maryview has been our most-prolific private corporation,'' Gourdine-Thorpe said.
Mills was assigned to the linens section of the housekeeping department. Within two weeks she was hired - just part-time, but she could retain her food stamps and Medicaid benefits. It was her first job.
Two years later, the hospital brought her aboard full-time. Mills left public assistance completely.
Today, 10 years later, Mills heads the hospital's housekeeping department.
``The system does work,'' Mills said.
``But you have to have that willing attitude, to want to work and succeed.
``I was tired of sitting there, receiving that check every month.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
Joyce Mills on the program at Maryview Medical Center: ``You have to
have that willing attitude to want to work and succeed.''
by CNB