DATE: Wednesday, August 6, 1997             TAG: 9708060451

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LEWIS KRAUSKOPF, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   67 lines

STATE WELFARE REFORM'S ``TOUGH-LOVE'' MESSAGE: YOU MUST FIND WORK

More than 300 recipients of government assistance were introduced Tuesday to the state's version of ``tough love,'' also known as welfare reform.

State and city officials waded through acronyms and complex new rules to deliver a message loud and clear to a packed auditorium at Oscar F. Smith High School: You must find work.

But speakers also emphasized the city's commitment to help residents take down barriers keeping them from employment.

``It's a no-play, tough-love (policy),'' said Doris ``Cookie'' Roberts, director of the Chesapeake Department of Human Services. ``You are the diamonds. It's our job to polish those diamonds.''

For at least some of the recipients in attendance, the reassurance was the kick-start they needed.

``They could just say your time is up, this is it,'' said Anna Moody, a 24-year-old mother of two. ``I knew I would have to (get a job) anyway, but I'm glad they're going to help me.''

Tuesday's meeting was the city's last mass gathering before Oct. 1, when the work requirements of welfare reform will be phased in in Hampton Roads.

Over the cries of babies, speakers tried to motivate as well as inform during the 2 1/2-hour presentation. Roberts offered herself as someone who had faced a similar plight.

``Looks are deceiving. If you know me, you'll know that I'm a single parent who left an abusive husband,'' she said. ``I came from a family that was poor, but I never felt impoverished.''

Former welfare recipient Regina Person, who is now a housekeeper at Fleet Combat Training Center at Dam Neck, received a standing ovation from the audience. Person was reluctant to speak, so a social worker had to tell how Person had received welfare for 14 years.

``Being a single parent is hard,'' said Person, a mother of eight. ``What Social Services is offering you, I think you should take it. At least they're offering us something.''

What government is hoping to offer is self-sufficiency, something that was missing until the recent reforms, said Clarence H. Carter, commissioner of the state Department of Social Services.

``Our goal (before) was to give you just enough money to stay where you are - forever if you like,'' Carter said.

The turnout for the welfare reform summit was less than half of the estimated 817 Chesapeake recipients who will be required to work for benefits under the Virginia Initiative for Employment not Welfare program. Recipients are limited to five years of welfare benefits. But they can receive monthly checks for only two straight years before they must stop receiving aid for two years, unless an exception is granted.

Also, residents must make 40 job contacts over 30 days after they enter VIEW, said Welfare Reform Coordinator Linda D. Piersawl. If they do not get jobs within 90 days, the city will place them in unpaid jobs, Piersawl said.

All of this raised concerns - child care, health care and transportation, in particular - from many in attendance.

City officials hope to deal with such concerns during smaller group and individual assessments of VIEW participants. MEMO: Staff writer Liz Szabo contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Anna Moody, 24, holds her 3-month-old daughter, Kindall Stewart, at

Tuesday's VIEW session. Naomi Spellman, 40, right, holds her niece,

Psalmonica Lawton, 16 months. ``I am glad they are going to help

me,'' Moody said. KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM

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