
DATE: Monday, October 6, 1997               TAG: 9710060085

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: FROM WELFARE TO WORK

        THE NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  146 lines

MOTIVATION GIVES SOME A HEAD START ON ``NEW WELFARE''

Four-year-old Dakeemia Hart has found a favorite new toy.

It's her mother's new hard hat, which Dakeemia must hold in place with both hands as she parades around the living room, the oversized hat balanced atop her head.

For Dakeemia, the shiny, fire-engine-red helmet is an irresistible plaything, a costume centerpiece. For her mother, Carol Hart, it's a symbol of her new job - and a new life.

Carol Hart, who once lived in a homeless shelter and spent seven years on and off welfare, last month began a full-time job at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

Hart has a jump on the state's welfare-to-work effort, called the Virginia Initiative for Employment not Welfare. As of Oct. 1, more than 9,000 able-bodied welfare recipients in Hampton Roads are required to find jobs within 90 days or be assigned to community service. Those who don't could lose their benefits.

Federal welfare reform also sets a five-year lifetime limit on welfare benefits. In Virginia, recipients may receive benefits for no more than two years consecutively.

Hart is spending 40 hours a week at the shipyard as a pipefitter, and many hours more in night classes at Tidewater Community College as a member of the shipyard's four-year apprentice program, which trains unskilled workers for career-track jobs.

``I feel really blessed,'' said Hart, 26. ``I've been ready to work ever since I heard about this program.''

Nothing about working full-time and raising four children will be easy, Hart said. But it's all worth it - for her children's sake, as much as her own.

``All kids need a role model,'' Hart said as she spread peanut butter on a slice of white bread for Dakeemia. ``I want them to look at me and say, `My mom did it. I can do it, too.' ''

This isn't the first time Hart has tried to get off welfare. She hopes it's the last.

``I really don't want to go back on the system,'' Hart said. ``I don't want to be dependent.''

She was working as recently as this spring. But Hart lost her job as a telephone interviewer in Virginia Beach after she wrecked her car in an accident and couldn't find transportation to the office.

As with many parents, Hart's days begin and end with her children. She rises at 5:30 a.m. to feed and dress the children - Dakeemia and her twin brother, Dakeem, her 7-year-old daughter, Dacheniqua, and 8-year-old son, DeVincio - before taking them to day care at 6:15 a.m. Later, her older children will go to school, the twins to Head Start.

``Forty-five minutes goes by real fast,'' Hart said. ``I look at the clock, and before I know it, I have five minutes to comb two heads.''

Her days are long.

On school nights, Hart picks up her children from day care at 8 p.m., heading to bed with her children half an hour later.

Her neat, two-story townhouse on High Street shows the wear and tear inflicted by four active kids. A gash on one corner of her gray-and-black striped couch reveals its yellow foam stuffing. But few toys litter her white linoleum floors. Framed posters, some purchased new, some for $5 at a yard sale, decorate her walls with pictures of children, flowers and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Hart pays no rent for this air-conditioned home, a welfare benefit that she will soon lose. She will begin paying $278 for her four-bedroom apartment in December.

Still, Hart said, she won't miss her $410 monthly welfare check - the last of which she received in September. Her food stamps will end in December.

Those monthly checks never lasted more than a few days, she said. She'll make far more with her new, $7.76-an-hour job. She'll also receive health benefits for the first time in her life. She thinks she'll have enough money to renew her telephone service, which was cut off weeks ago.

``Right now, any job is a good job,'' Hart said. ``When I first found out about the program, I told them I didn't care how much I was making, as long as I was working. As long as I could get up out of bed in the morning and have someplace to go.''

And Hart's not intimidated about entering a male-dominated trade.

Only 17 of the shipyard's 70 newest apprentices are women, said Earnest Marshall, personnel management specialist. Just 312 of the shipyard's 3,982 blue-collar employees are women.

Fortunately, Hart isn't alone in her struggle.

Finding her a job and helping her keep it has taken the work of employers, educators and state social service agencies.

Hart learned about the shipyard opening through a flier at TCC, where she was already taking classes, thanks to a grant from Portsmouth Social Services and the Jobs Program, a transitional welfare-to-work program that helped those who went to work before welfare reform began Oct. 1. Marshall works closely with local social service agencies and schools.

Hart's case manager at Portsmouth Social Services, Linda Lassiter, arranged child care free of charge for Hart's first month of work. Beginning this month, Hart is paying $133 a month - or 10 percent of her salary - for child care. Social Services is also providing Hart with free transportation. She'll get round-trip bus fare to the shipyard as well as free tuition for three classes a semester at TCC.

Hart went shopping Saturday for a used car. Social Services will reimburse Hart up to $500 for repairs to get it running.

Now, Hart and other former recipients will be able to work and keep their benefits up to the federal poverty level, said Lenora Hardy, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Social Services. Benefits such as transportation and educational vouchers will be gradually phased out as her income rises.

Hart said she appreciates the help. She knows that her benefits will be limited in the future.

``I feel like it's the opportunity of a lifetime,'' Hart said. ``I'd be a fool to mess this up.''

Now, instead of dealing with Section 8 public housing applications and food stamps, Hart is learning about direct deposit, retirement funds, savings accounts and health insurance co-pays.

And she's already making plans for the future - saving for a house, maybe even beginning her own business one day.

Those helping Hart with her transition say they have confidence in her.

Hart's supervisors and teachers have praised her progress so far, Marshall said. She's scoring between 86 and 91.3 on tests in her apprenticeship courses and showing up for work on time.

``She's doing extremely well,'' said Marshall of Hart's first month on the job.

``She's interested; she's highly motivated; she's energetic,'' Marshall said. ``Social services is really helping her out in every way. The major issues a lot of welfare recipients have to deal with are transportation and day care - which they're providing - and attitudes, developing a winning attitude. So often you find yourself in a situation where you find you can't overcome those barriers.''

Hart has barely begun work, but she has no plans to leave.

``I'm going to be at the shipyard as long as they'll have me,'' Hart said. ``If they even try to fire me, I'm not moving. They're going to have to bury me at the shipyard; I'm going to be there for the rest of my life.''

If Hart's confidence in herself flags, she doesn't have to look far for inspiration.

``The kids have been waiting for me to go get a job,'' Hart said. ``They been, like, `Ma, why aren't you working?' They were just as excited as I was.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

GARY C. KNAPP

Carol Hart, who once lived in a homeless shelter and spent seven

years on and off welfare, last month began a full-time job at the

Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

Carol Hart juggles caring for her four children, a new job, and

night school as she tries to become less dependent upon welfare.

Here, 7-year-old Dacheniqua gets some help with her hair the night

before school. ``All kids need a role model,'' Hart says. ``I want

them to look at me and say, `My mom did it. I can do it, too.' ''

MARK MITCHELL

The Virginian-Pilot KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM