Coming Off the Rolls:
An Interview with Sarah Kisner

Aired October 13, 1999

April Baer–We've been following along as Bonnie Newell has taken on the role of advocate for herself, but her case is not necessarily the only case in the case files of welfare reform. We joined by now on the phone Sarah Kisner, the deputy director of the Summit County Family Support Service Department. Ms. Kisner, thanks for being with us.

Sarah Kisner–Thank you for having me this morning.

AB–We've been hearing Bonnie Newell's story, she certainly has been very enterprising in getting out on her own and finding out what opportunities that are out there, but one of the things we seem to keep hearing a lot is that there are so many programs and that it really does take a sharp mind and someone who's on it full time to be on top of all the possibilities for what people can find for job training.

SK–You're absolutely correct, but we also have a responsibility to work with the clients and as she said, she was one of the lucky ones, and that she had a good advocate in terms of her caseworker, and we have to make sure that we provide the correct information to our caseworkers and case managers to make sure that they can disseminate that information to our clients so that they'll know that just because they're coming off of assistance doesn't mean that that's the end of the road.

AB–How are the case loads looking out in Summit County at this point?

SK–Well, right now case loads are going down. We're losing about 200 clients per month, and as they are coming off of assistance, we need to educate them in terms of the various programs that are available to them as they come off of assistance.

AB–Yesterday we spoke with someone from Lorain County's Human Services Bureau, and she predicted that the biggest thing that's going to keep people on welfare from staying self-sufficient, once their deadlines hit, could possibly be a lack of adequate education or training. Would you agree with that?

SK–I agree with her on that, and that goes to my comment in reference to agencies across the state of Ohio have to make the information available to clients. We can't wait until the client is actually off of assistance to contact them and say, "hey, we forgot to tell you these programs are available to you." As we know, as our workers know that the clients are coming off assistance, we need to send them information, be in contact with them and say to them, "here are some programs that you are entitled to, standard programs for medical care, for food stamps, Healthy Start, that you can get, these programs are available to you." But we also have a responsibility to tell them about those extra programs that will be available to them through our PRC program.

AB–Recognizing that every person's case is different, what do you think is the most effective way to get people receiving public assistance started on learning the skills that they need?

SK–Well, I think it's a two-prong process. I think number one, we have to create an atmosphere for clients that they want to talk to us and let them know that we are here to assist them to become self-sufficient. We have to make available to them ways of communicating back to us information we may not have. They may have changed their addresses, they may no longer have a telephone number that we can communicate with them, so they have to make sure that they get that information back to us. They can call us and let us know, "I have a change of address, I have a new telephone number, what programs are available to me?" On the outside of the coin, we have to also communicate, as our clients are coming off, to them correct information in terms of programs like transitional Medicaid or Healthy Start, food stamps, refer them to community resources that they may not be aware of.

AB–Ms. Kisner, does Summit County, or does indeed the state of Ohio have the cash to send every welfare recipient to college or into a skilled trade, or is that something that they're probably going to have to deal with on their own?

SK–I think that to say that the state of Ohio has cash to send every recipient or client to school, it's a question that I can't respond to. I would say that the state of Ohio has funds available for those clients who want to obtain additional educational training, make that training available to them and work with them on an intervention process to assist them to meet their other needs, that they can't get to the training and the educational programs, so that they can have the transportation, the day care and food in order to be able to become self-sufficient.

AB–Ms. Kisner, thanks for joining us today.

SK–Thank you so much.

AB–Sarah Kisner is Deputy Director of the Summit County Family Support Services Department. She spoke with us on the phone from Akron.