Van Pool Service Helps New Workers

Aired July 8, 1999

This is INFOhio After Nine, I am David C. Barnett, welcoming you to the 8th of July, 1999 date we're focusing on issues of welfare reform. In a couple minutes, we'll take you live to a special meeting of the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners to hear about a new welfare initiative. Right now, though, we're going to take you for a ride. The ultimate goal of welfare reform is to move people from public assistance to self-sufficiency. While thousands have made the transition into the workforce, there are many jobs and many job seekers waiting to be matched up. County officials say a local van pool program will help bridge that gap. 90.3 correspondent Harry Boomer filed this report as a part of our continuing series, "The Changing Face of Welfare."

LeVer Irwin–I'm from the Fairfax area, I live off of 84th and Central.

Harry Boomer–That's LeVer Irvin. He's a 47-year-old father of five. Irvin was incarcerated for six years, for what he won't say, and he just got off parole last month. He's been employed at Dots Warehouse in Solon since October of 1998. Dots is an off-price retail company with 240 stores, mostly in the Midwest, the East Coast, and Florida. When Irvin started working at Dots, he was a materials handler. Now he's a team captain. He says his transition back into society was made possible by his being gainfully employed, a job he says he wouldn't have if it were not for the van pool set-up group Goodwill Industries, Cuyahoga County, and the Regional Transit Authority, RTA. About 5:50 each workday, he and some others on welfare are picked up at Goodwill's E. 55th and Central location. Within an hour, they are dropped off at their work sites in Solon.

LI–The van service that they do provide is great. They give an opportunity to anyone who really wanted to work, who don't have the transportation, you can really can give no excuse for not working because they are on time, and not one time have I been late catching this van.

HB–Getting to his job has given LeVer Irvin a sense of pride and accomplishment. Getting LeVer Irvin to his job is also giving his employer, Dots, a valuable worker, according to Bill Houk, the company's human resources director. Dots was started in Cleveland at E. 131st and Taft 30 years ago. About 15 years ago, it moved to Solon, and so did its jobs.

Bill Houk–It helps us, it helps the employee, it helps the organization, and we have worked diligently over the last several years to try to develop these partnerships with various organizations, and the transportation hurdle has always been one of the major hurdles that we have to get over in order to get people to work for us.

HB–Over the years, lots of companies moved to green spaces in the suburbs, and in recent years, the booming economy created a tight labor market, so there are plenty of jobs outside the city, and a workforce in the city who finds it difficult to get to the jobs. As parts of the welfare reform program, Cuyahoga Work and Training contracted with Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland to transport welfare recipients to open jobs in the outer suburbs, including Solon, Strongsville, and Twinsburg. Bill Maser of Mazelle, a close-out merchandiser in Solon, has a workforce of about 70 people. Some of them commute from Cleveland, using the county's van pool program.

Bill Maser–Well, it's been very helpful for us. As you know, there's a very tight labor market and a year-and-a-half ago we went to a recruiting seminar in the Collinwood area, I believe it was, and we were introduced to the welfare-to-work people, and we were able to successfully recruit five people to work for us, all of which are still with us. They're very helpful for us.

Sandra Smith–I stay on 116th, between Union and Kinsman.

HB–The van pool has also helped Sandra Smith, a 37-year old mother of two. Smith uses a machine called a lifter on her job at Mazelle. In order to get to work by 7:00, a van picks her up every morning at about 5:30.

SS–She has other people to pick up, because she has to go to the Goodwill, pick them up, and then she picks me up from my house, and there's two other girls she picks up from their house, too, she has to pick up one from St. Clair, and one from off of 93rd, and it brings me here, and it gets me here on time. I get here an hour early every day, and it would pick me up in the evenings, but I work overtime, so someone else from here takes me home.

Lisa Rowen–That van, it really made a difference for me because without that, I don't think I would've been able-I don't think I would've even started looking for a job as soon as I did.

HB–That's Lisa Rowen. She and her 4-year old son Jordan live on Wade Park in Cleveland. She works for Mazelle on a machine called a stacker. Today, she says, she enjoys her job and the sense of accomplishment that it gives her.

LR–I started riding the van in March of '98, and in May of '98 I bought a car, so I rode thevan for three months and because of the van, I was able to save money and get a car.

HB–Again, Bill Houk of Dots Stores.

BH–We are blessed with some very, very good workers. They want to work, we have a very good group of individuals who are dependable, who show up, and do their best in terms of wanting to work. Their biggest challenge is getting to Solon, Ohio.

HB–A week ago, RTA took over the reins of the van pool program. Goodwill Industries will continue to provide transportation until RTA can implement its own program. Right now, about 130 people a day use the service. RTA wants to expand from six to fifteen passenger vans, and a two-year contract between the county and RTA will see each pump more than a million dollars into the service. For INFOhio, I'm Harry Boomer in Cleveland.