DATE: Monday, July 28, 1997                 TAG: 9707280093

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  133 lines

WILLING TO WORK? GROUP GUARANTEES TRAINING, JOBS

More than 1,500 low- or no-income adults and children live in Ida Barbour Park, a public housing neighborhood in the middle of downtown Portsmouth.

However, in a renewal project that could serve as a nationwide model, the 663 units that sit on 43 acres are scheduled to be demolished in sections over the next several years and replaced by new housing, much of it single-family, owner-occupied homes.

What will happen to the people who live there?

Jeremiah Griffin, a Portsmouth native who now lives in Northern Virginia, says he has the answer.

Griffin is one of the owners and is the executive director of The Noah Group of Seat Pleasant, Md. The company has been hired by the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority to assess, train and find employment for Ida Barbour residents.

He offers ``guaranteed results.''

``We're not warm and fuzzy; we're not do-gooders,'' he said. ``We're for-profit. We're going to be successful.''

Hal Short of the PRHA staff says Griffin's program ``offers optimism rather than fear for the unknown.''

``Noah says if you work with us, you will have a job,'' Short said.

Griffin, 46, is the son of Jeremiah and Jearline Griffin, who live in Cavalier Manor. He is a 1968 graduate of I.C. Norcom High, has degrees from three Connecticut universities and is a licensed clinical social worker.

``We deal with the whole person,'' he said. ``We need professionals to accomplish this.''

All Noah workers hired in Portsmouth are licensed clinical social workers, psychologists or vocational education professionals.

``This is important because we're dealing with human beings who have myriad problems,'' Griffin said. ``The staff must make sensible assessments of what a person needs.''

Some participants in the Portsmouth program, called Foundation Stone, will be housed temporarily in 48 refurbished Newtown Apartments on Seventh Street, another PRHA development. Others will continue to live at Ida Barbour.

Although the training will not start until early 1998, members of the Noah team already are working in offices set up in two Ida Barbour apartments.

``We do elaborate assessments of the leaseholders,'' Griffin said. ``Then we report back to them what it will take to make them self-sufficient.''

Griffin said his staff ``finds out everything about a household,'' such as mental health, drug use, education, criminal background and work history.

``We do a lot of testing because we need to know what we're dealing with in each household,'' he said. ``We find out what each person needs and what each one wants. We develop a life plan.''

Some residents will not fit into the Noah training program, he said, and the assessments help determine whether residents meet the program's acceptance guidelines. But Noah doesn't abandon those who are not accepted.

``We send them to other agencies that can enable them to move to a new level,'' he said. ``If a person can't read, we'll partner with an agency that can teach him to read. If a person has a drug problem, we'll send him to a rehabilitation center.''

Griffin said his company does not try to offer services already available in the community.

``The way you stay out of political fractures is to partner with people already doing the work,'' he explained. ``You give credit to those who have been here all along.''

Once a person has been accepted into the Noah program, in addition to learning job skills, each person also must agree to learn appropriate workplace behavior, Griffin said. Each participant will receive 40 hours of concentrated motivational training.

``We also address attitudinal postures and behavior dynamics that are the product of living in a disadvantaged community,'' Griffin said. ``There are a number of people who don't know their behavior is not appropriate for a job.''

Griffin said his company has stiff rules about behavior.

``If you can't make it, you have to step out of the job-training program,'' he said.

Those who do make it and continue the training also get continuous help with their life plans.

If a person needs child care, Noah supplies vouchers to provide it. The same goes for transportation to a job or eldercare for relatives who might live in the same household.

``We offer classes in parenting for those who have problems with their children,'' he said. ``We cover everything.

Everyone who completes the training is guaranteed a job.

The job promise is possible, Griffin said, because his company has contracts with many companies - including IBM and Marriott at a national level as well as others locally - that will hire those trained by Noah.

The dropout rate in the actual job training has been about 2 percent in other cities such as Baltimore. Griffin said that the small number of dropouts is directly related to the accuracy of the assessments.

Much of the assessment process is done in groups of six or fewer.

The idea, Griffin said, is to develop a long-lasting support system for the residents.

``We're setting them up to be honest with each other and to develop interdependence,'' Griffin explained. ``They talk about etiquette and appropriate behavior. They talk about speech and about attitudes, about appropriate clothing.''

Will residents of Ida Barbour accept the program?

``We literally sign a contact,'' Griffin said. ``If they don't, they're out of the program. We're a business. We want people who want to succeed.''

Residents who want to continue to live in the reconstructed downtown housing area that will replace the existing Ida Barbour must be part of the program. Their alternative is to move elsewhere, using a Section 8 subsidy certificate and losing all opportunity to buy into the new housing on the old site.

Now, about 130 apartments at Ida Barbour are vacant and boarded up. But PRHA Director Danny Cruce said the vacancies are a result of ``natural attrition'' because of lease violations and nonpayment of rent.

``We have made no relocation effort,'' he said. ``In fact, we're trying to let residents know it's to their advantage to stay and participate in the Noah program.''

PRHA will not raze any of the old buildings until new housing is available. That will be accomplished by first razing an old vacant school building adjacent to Ida Barbour. This initial phase will include 60 units, including single-family houses, duplexes and a few small apartment buildings.

The next phase will be built on adjacent land, where one section of Ida Barbour will be demolished. New construction will continue over four to five years, one section at the time.

The new subdivisions will follow a design created by Ray Gindroz, the Pittsburgh consultant for the city's Vision 2005 economic and community development plan.

Residents of Ida Barbour will be given the first chance at the new housing. PRHA will lease the single-family houses, giving occupants an option to buy in the future. A portion of the money they pay in rent will be put into escrow to create a down payment.

The complex program will be funded with about $35 million that the city expects to receive from the federal government for a national pilot project. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Jeremiah Griffin

Graphic

About the program

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: JOB PROGRAM FOUNDATION STONE JOB PLACEMENT PUBLIC

HOUSING IDA BARBOUR PARK

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