Local Partnership Hopes to Assist in Job Training

Aired July 8, 1999

David C. Barnett–A few minutes from now, Cuyahoga County's Board of Commissioners will be holding a special meeting at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Cleveland's east side to announce a new welfare initiative. 90.3's Yolanda Perdomo is live on the scene. Yolanda, what's the story?

Yolanda Perdomo–Dave, the county, along with Cleveland Works, Goodwill Industries, the Salvation Army, the Urban League among others have formed this alliance or partnership to hopefully assist about 700 local families who need job training and the support they need to go from welfare to work. Here at the church, the basement of the building is being set up for the special county commission meeting at 9:30. People are trickling in from the community as well as the other agencies, and joining us is County Commissioner Tim McCormick. Thank you very much.

Tim McCormick–Good morning.

YP–This project is unique and it has never been done before. Why put it together and why do it now?

TM–Well, because 90.3 WCPN® has highlighted welfare reform and what needs to be done better than anybody else, and what you've highlighted and why today is unique is because unlike almost any other place in the country, if we were in New York City this morning, New York City's approach to welfare reform is cut welfare rolls, don't ask us where people have gone once they're off welfare, it's none of our business. In Cleveland today, and what we're initiating today is a whole different approach. We're going to organizations that for the last 100 years have been the primary social service organizations who are respected. When we say Salvation Army, when we say Urban League, when we say Goodwill Industries, you know and I know that these are trusted organizations who help people and are legitimate, so we're going top take approximately 10,000 of the most difficult cases, these are young women with children who have been on welfare for a period of time, and match them with the organizations to do what it takes to giver her the opportunity to be self-sufficient.

YP–How many county dollars are being put into this?

TM–It's important to say this: that no dollars will go in unless these organizations do their job. If they do their job, a maximum of $35 million over a two-year period, and that sounds like a huge sum, but if I told you that we literally are only spending 10% of what we already spend on abused and neglected children, almost all of whom come out of these households, so we're investing in making welfare reform work. It's going to be much less expensive in the long run.

YP–How does the program work, do they have to go to a new center being put together, or do they continue to go to the neighborhood centers that have been established, the eleven of them that are around-

TM–Yolanda, here we are at 87th and Quincy, you and I at this moment, and we will literally ,if need be, go to the homes, to the apartments of individuals, knock on the door, introduce ourselves, and say, "look. You and your children have only about 14 months left before you lose all benefits for a lifetime." We're going to try everything we can to engage people to say, "help yourselves," so whatever it take literally, that's what we're kicking off today.

YP–You're saying whatever it takes, you have to hire many, many more people in order to-

TM–We're not going-the magic of today is we're not going to hire any additional public employees. We're turning this over to the community. This is a true partnership, so the expenditure of funds don't involve any new public employees.

YP–So when you say you're turning it o the community, you're turning it into these agencies-

TM–We'The Salvation Army, at it's installations, the Urban League will be doing job training. Cleveland Works, if there are legal problems, a person has legal problems from the past. Vocational Guidance on E. 55th has been there for a century. They are highly regarded, and they will be doing job training. They train people who have severe disabilities. So at the heart of this is the assumption that first of all, all humans have dignity, and secondly, that all of us can improve at our skill level, so we're going to try and build people to the point where they have enough confidence to work.

YP–How long was this program in the planning?

TM–It's been, I think it's fair to say, since welfare reform began, two years ago. We've been searching for the best response for people in deep trouble. Today is so exciting because this is really the last, if you think about Everest and climbing Everest, this is the last great push to get to the top.

YP–This is the first meeting that you've had out here in the community to discuss welfare reform. Do you plan on another one, and when would that be?

TM–We're going to now have regular contact. A major part of the contract today is deep-seeded community contact in terms of information and engaging the public, so you're going to see a broadcasting, literally, of the message that needs to get out.

YP–Thank you very much.

TM–Thank you.

YP–Tim McCormick, Cuyahoga County Commissioner, here for the special commission meeting at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. It's located at 8712 Quincy Ave. on Cleveland's east side, and we'll have more on this special meeting on today's Around Noon. David.

DCB–Thank you very much, Yolanda. That's Yolanda Perdomo from 90.3's news department.