DATE: Sunday, July 6, 1997                  TAG: 9707040529

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: FOLLOWING WELFARE REFORM

        In July of 1995, a group in Culpeper and a few neighboring counties

        became the first in the state to enter the welfare-to-work program.

        The Virginian-Pilot has followed three women through the two-year

        period before welfare ends. Their fate is a clue to the future of

        hundreds of local people.

SOURCE: BY CLARENCE CARTER LENGTH: 66 lines

REFORM OPPONENTS' FEARS HAVE NOT BEEN REALIZED

As I reflect on the first two years of the Virginia Independence Program, I think back to the many contentious discussions that went on during its development:

FALSE PROPHETS OF DOOM: One thing is certain: The devastation opponents cried this reform would rain on children and families has not materialized.

While this declaration isn't meant to suggest that it's now time to declare victory and go home, it is meant to put to rest claims that this reform was mean-spirited, lacked compassion and and backed away from the commonwealth's commitment to poor women and children.

In fact, the opposite has occurred. All evidence points to the lives of women and their children being enhanced by this historic reform. Here are a few statistics to drive home the point:

Recipients are working: The Earned Income Disregard has allowed welfare recipients - who were once penalized for going to work - to earn, save and spend more than $10 million dollars in two years. The average working participant earns $720 a month, far in excess of the average monthly welfare benefit of $291. In fact, participants now can keep their earnings and their monthly benefit.

Caseloads are down: Since the governor signed the bill into law in March 1995, the caseload is down 30 percent. Since the official start of the program that July, cases are down 25 percent.

And we have yet to phase in the work component of 40 percent of our cases. In the first 22 months of the program, 63 percent of the 9,873 participants were employed.

MANY HANDS MADE IT WORK: While the law is effective, none of this would have occurred without a renewed sense of optimism and hope among welfare recipients that has translated into energetic and proactive job preparedness, the heroic efforts of local Social Services employees and their quiet transformation into supportive and demanding coaches, the resurgence of family and community involvement, and local business people recognizing and seizing the tremendous benefits of hiring these job-ready applicants.

LOOKING FORWARD: Reform cannot be the passing fancy of the moment. Our work is not complete. It took 40 years and three generations to create the maladies of the welfare state. It will take at least a generation to change them.

During this season of change, we must understand that these are community-based problems that require community-based solutions.

Local departments of social services, and churches and community action agencies, can't do it alone. Only as we come together as families, as neighborhoods, as communities, as localities and regions, and finally as a commonwealth, will the whole truly be greater than the sum of its parts. If we continue to remember that, then the success of this reform will be complete. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Photo

Clarence Carter

Appointed Commissioner, Virginia Department of Social Services, by

Gov. George F. Allen in 1996, Carter is responsible for implementing

Virginia's welfare reform programs. With a staff of 1,500 and a $900

million budget, Carter manages one of the state's largest agencies.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu