Cleveland Works:
An Interview with Debbie Lucci

Aired August 3, 1999

David C. Barnett–Since 1986, the organization known as Cleveland Works has helped thousands of area residents move from public assistance to self-sufficiency. Joining us in Studio B this morning is Debbie Lucci, a marketer corporate representative for Cleveland Works. Good morning.

Debbie Lucci–Good morning.

DCB–And what does that name mean exactly, are you marketing people?

DL–I'm marketing jobs in the community. It's my responsibility to work with the about 800 employers that hire from Cleveland Works, finding good job opportunities that are full-time with health benefits, and then the other part of my title, corporate rep means that I follow through with those clients once they're hired by those employers, making sure that they stay working.

DCB–How do these people come to you originally, are they mandated to go to Cleveland Works?

DL–Some are, some are referred to us through the Department of Human Services, and we also have a program where many of our clients come to us through the court system.

DCB–Can you relate to this situation of trying to make people ready to go to the job?

DL–There's a long process that we use.

DCB–What are some of the little things that people don't do and need to be brought up to speed on?

DL–Part of the first step that we take is making sure that they know that they're ready to go to work by making sure that their day care is together, any kind of life management issues are taken care of, that their personal appearance, that they're prepared to walk into any employer.

DCB–How do you take care of some of those life management issues, are there some things that are big obstacles you can't overcome?

DL–So far, we haven't been able to not overcome any of them. We've established parenting programs, we've established relationships with organizations in the community like Dress for Success, we have a legal department that takes care of issues, legal issues that may be getting in the way, and we have a close relationship with many of the day care programs in town, to make sure that all these families are ready to go to work and there are no obstacles.

DCB–Have there been changes in the sorts of jobs that are available and do you always have to adjust your training and that sort of thing?

DL–Not really. The employers that have hired from us over the last fourteen years remain consistent. The types of jobs in the community that are available that many of our clients fill are entry-level positions, clerical and non-clerical positions, and we do work with some of the skill trades as well, but we've really worked with the same kind of employers, and the clients that we've served, their skills have pretty much remained the same over the last fourteen years.

DCB–This morning we heard from one of the President's critics who was indicating that one of the problems with welfare reform as it's going is there isn't a tracking of what happens to people once they go to these jobs, but part of your job is to do that tracking.

DL–Right. That's imperative, to really follow through with the employer and the new employee to make sure that they're doing well on the job. We follow through when people are first hired on a weekly basis to make sure that they're doing well, that they're getting there on time, that they're able to do their job, that there aren't any kind of family-related issues that are getting in the way of them being successful, and then, on an ongoing basis over a year, we track them on a regular basis to make sure they're still employed, and because we're able to do that, and because we have people in place that have that as their responsibility, we have retention rates of about 85-90% after one year.

DCB–Debbie Lucci is marketer and corporate representative for Cleveland Works, and she's joined us this morning in Studio B. Thanks for dropping by.

DL–You're welcome.