DATE: Wednesday, October 1, 1997            TAG: 9710010479

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: FROM WELFARE TO WORK

        THE NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  212 lines

THE SEARCH FOR WORK BEGINS TODAY

Welfare reform's future in Hampton Roads is now its present.

During the next three months, the Virginia Department of Social Services estimates it will determine who among 9,000 Hampton Roads welfare recipients must make the transition from welfare to work.

The law now requires all welfare recipients who are able to work to find jobs within 90 days of their evaluations.

That means thousands of people could enter the Hampton Roads work force in the coming months.

Not every welfare recipient will make the transition, but when these would-be employees start looking for jobs, the impact on local businesses will be unmistakable.

Who will hire them? The answer, so far, is uncertain.

But Hampton Roads businesses are making more of an effort to hire welfare recipients.

More large firms are offering more openings to welfare recipients, and more programs are in place to help with pre-employment training and placement to get recipients to the jobs.

The Virginia Employment Commission estimates there are 758,417 people in the civilian labor force in Hampton Roads. VEC economist Dave Tysinger said the commission lists about 1,000 full- and part-time jobs available in the area.

Not just for welfare reform, the positions ``are all types of jobs advertised by employers, from the lowest-paying to the highest-paying,'' Tysinger said.

Another resource for job-seekers, The Virginian-Pilot, usually lists about 1,800 help wanted advertisements in its Sunday edition, the largest of the week.

There might be some overlap between the two sources, but even if there isn't, the numbers cover little more than a quarter of the potential work force coming off welfare.

It's also difficult to classify all of the jobs listed as open to welfare recipients. Many, if not most, require technical skills or experience.

The business community is supposed to take up the slack.

The Holiday Inn Portsmouth Waterfront has hired welfare recipients for at least five years, said Sherry Taylor, personnel and payroll manager.

``We do hire welfare recipients and we have had fairly good success,'' Taylor said. ``The only one who knows if they've been on welfare is me, because I fill out their paperwork.''

Until recently, there hasn't been a formal, organized effort from the Hampton Roads business community. There has been no unity in viewing welfare recipients as a source of employees.

Last Friday, however, Gov. George F. Allen went to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital to announce the formation of the Governor's Business Ambassadors for Welfare Reform.

The group of nearly 30 ambassadors, top executives of local businesses and appointed and elected officials, is aligned with the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

The group aims to educate businesses about welfare reform, to help track job growth, to serve as a focus group advising the governor, and to hire welfare recipients.

Among the ambassadors are executives from Dollar Tree Stores, Norshipco, Sentara Health System and Food Lion Inc.

Along with his announcement, Allen noted that Food Lion agreed to provide 320 jobs for welfare recipients in Hampton Roads.

Local and state government officials hope efforts such as this will lead the way in reducing welfare rolls.

But to do that, chamber members still must work with local cities' social service departments, which screen applicants to find the best candidates.

``That's the hope, working with social services and doing direct placement,'' said Martha McClees, chamber vice president for governmental affairs. ``Our role is in addition to, or as an added value to, what social services does.''

For their part, social service departments help welfare recipients arrange for transportation, child care and even health insurance.

Without assistance in those areas, moving residents from welfare to work would be extremely difficult. But even with that help, success isn't guaranteed.

In fact, some critics argue that efforts to employ welfare recipients are short-sighted.

Park Place resident Bill Thomas was a member of Gov. Allen's Empowerment Commission in 1994-95, doing work that led to the commonwealth's plan for welfare reform.

``It's a noble effort, but we have to be realistic,'' Thomas said of helping welfare recipients find work. ``You can always get the cream off the top. The hard core is what you have to move.''

Thomas said the problem is not the lack of jobs, but a lack of tools in the inner cities.

``You look at Park Place, there's not even a bank there,'' he said. ``And it's not realistic to pick up someone in Berkley and bus them to Virginia Beach. What we should do is take the people and let them change their environment.''

Companies that have hired welfare recipients have found that the new employees brought their personal problems to work, Thomas said. Some ``companies got rid of them.''

Not all companies have had that experience.

Bill Shugrue, vice president of human resources for Gateway 2000 in Hampton, says former welfare recipients often make productive employees.

``We've had some very good results,'' Shugrue said. ``We've had low attrition rates and good performance.''

The computer manufacturer has hired more than 100 welfare recipients and more than 200 low-income workers since it opened in 1996.

Most of the welfare workers were hired for entry-level jobs, earning $7 an hour. But out of the first 100 hired, 44 percent have been promoted, ``some more than once,'' Shugrue said. And some promotions have been for supervisory positions.

The practice began as a way of capitalizing on a financial incentive, Shugrue said.

``We were striving to meet the state of Virginia enterprise zone criteria for tax incentives,'' he said. ``We had to have a certain percentage to qualify.''

So the company worked with social service departments and local, community and religious leaders to identify candidates who met the requirements.

Now, Shugrue said, Gateway realizes it has a valuable resource that it might have missed.

``These folks have had a rough time, but they have a strong work ethic and they've proven themselves.''

Norfolk Works shares Shugrue's belief. The organization emphasizes the importance of pre-employment training for basic workplace skills and behavior, focusing on job-readiness training.

It also refers people to specific training, said Eleanor Bradshaw, director.

``There are jobs out there - there are good jobs out there'' for welfare recipients, Bradshaw said. ``The important thing is being able to refer these people to the jobs.''

Since June 1995, Norfolk Works has helped place 500 residents in jobs. It can't fill the thousands of jobs needed for residents moving from welfare to work, but it is one component of the areawide effort to accomplish the goal.

With Norfolk's share of welfare-to-work cases numbering nearly 2,400, Norfolk Works might face years of placements if it had to work alone.

The group works with any resident of Norfolk's Enterprise Community, which is bounded by the neighborhoods of Lamberts Point, Park Place, Huntersville, Berkley and Brambleton. All of the city's public housing is in the Enterprise Community, Bradshaw said.

Norfolk Works began training residents for work in 1995, with worker placement beginning in 1996. It has a retention rate of about 70 percent, Bradshaw said.

``The secret to our success is networking,'' she said.

The network, combined with training and job placement, and the benefits offered by social service departments, reduces businesses' costs of employing welfare recipients.

Norfolk Works contacts about 50 employers in Hampton Roads to let them know candidates are available.

``TWA is a good success story,'' Bradshaw said.

Judy Ocasio, TWA area reservation sales manager, agreed.

When the airline opened its call center in June 1996, Norfolk Works helped place 20 employees.

``Of those we hired, the majority are still here,'' Ocasio said.

After the initial class, TWA gave Norfolk Works some feedback.

``We told them what skills were important: geography, telephone skills,'' Ocasio said. ``We've been very happy with how training has progressed.''

The employees' performance on the job has been very good, too.

``We've been very happy, for the most part,'' Ocasio said. ``They've been extremely happy to work here, which makes them good employees to have here.''

Becoming good employees is a goal of participants in a new initiative at Tidewater Community College. The Customer Service Skills Program recently graduated its first class of 11 women, said Leslie Boughton, program developer and counselor.

Exclusively for women, the program takes a holistic, or wide-ranging, approach to skills training, Boughton said.

``Some of these women, this is the first thing they've completed,'' she said. ``If welfare reform is going to be successful, women have to have training.''

Each member of the class started work Monday at NationsBank at $16,500 a year, Boughton said.

``For their first four weeks, they'll be in intensive training,'' she said. ``Then they'll be on the floor as customer service representatives.''

The school also conducted an automotive training program with the help of the Portsmouth Social Services Department, Boughton said. And it has held a training program on heating ventilation and air conditioning.

``All of the programs need corporate support, she said. ``Without the employers, they will not work.'' ILLUSTRATION: THE DAWN OF "NEW WELFARE"

[Color Photo]

TAMARA VONINSKI/The Virginian-Pilot

Wanda Jones, center, learns how to use a computer on a recycled unit

at the Washington Park housing project office in Portsmouth while

other residents watch, including Helen Person, right, Uvonna

Anderson, 5, left, and Uvonna's mother, Robin. Women in the project

are gaining computer skills so they can teach others and earn points

toward acquiring a recycled computer for their homes. Details, A13.

WELFARE REFORM

Virginia's version of welfare reform begins in Hampton Roads

today, affecting about 9,000 recipients, hundreds of employers and

dozens of local communities. Families on public assistance must

adjust to a new system, while other citizens and businesses are

being asked to join in making the changes successful. Here are some

of the major components of welfare reform.

Work for benefits. Able-bodied welfare recipients must find jobs

within 90 days or be assigned to community service - or lose their

benefits.

Time limits. Clients can receive welfare checks for up to two

consecutive years at any one time. (When combined with changes in

federal law, the recipients cannot receive welfare for more than

five years over their lifetime.) After getting jobs, they may get

one year of transitional benefits for child care, transportation and

health care.

Earned-income disregard. Participants can keep welfare payments

plus any job earnings as long as the total does not exceed the

federal poverty level. For example, a family of three can take in up

to $1,111 a month, or $13,332 a year, including salary and $291 a

month in welfare.

Asset disregard. The state will allow welfare-to-work

participants to own one car with a fair market value up to $7,500,

and to save up to $5,000 for buying a home, paying for education or

starting a business.

Job searching. Recipients must do 40 job searches per six-week

period. Clients must show proof by getting signatures from each

potential employer they visit. KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM

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