College-Based Program Helps Welfare Recipients:

An Interview with Terry Butler

Aired December 7, 1999

David C. Barnett–A former administrator in the Cleveland school system is now employing his management skills to oversee a college-based program aimed at helping welfare recipients into the workforce. This past Thursday, former East Tech High School principal Terry Butler was hired as Cuyahoga Community College's Vice President of Business and Community Relations, a position that puts him in charge of what is called the Employment Mobilization Project, and her joins us on the phone. Good morning Mr. Butler.

Terry Butler–Good morning David.

DCB–In recent months, we've heard about a number of welfare-to-work programs locally. This Employment Mobilization Project is being touted as "state of the art." How so, what's so special about it?

TB–Well, what we've been doing through the Workforce and Economice Development division of Cuyahoga Community College is putting together programs that don't just address one piece of the issue, but rather comprehensive programs that begin with assessments, we feel that assessment is essential, then proceed through training, customized training. In the high schools, we talked about descriptive learning. Well, we have similar kinds of items built into the mobilization project, and then placement and something else that I think is key and essential, and that is retention. We need to find out how well we have done and how well the product that we have turned out is working out out there in the workforce.

DCB–So what you're saying is the people come in and you immediately look at where they're at right now, what their skills are, what their interests might be, and then you train them and then you follow up with it?

TB–Exactly. We look at employability and work maturity, job readiness, career interest, career assessment exploration, and then we begin to also look at their basic and technical skills, and then begin to get them into programs to enhance the skills that they have and make them more employable.

DCB–One description notes that this program is designed to be "open entry" and "open exit." What is that mean, people come and go as they please or what?

TB–Well, we're not requiring any specific entry requirements. People can come and go at will, but we are making certain basic recommendations as to the kind of skills they need to attain the kind of employment that they want. One thing that we don't want to continue doing in our region is creating the working core, sending out folks with skills that will only enable them to attain, say, entry-level positions, we want to push their skill levels up, so that they can obtain employment that will help them be self-sustaining.

DCB–Now one part of this, as you're assessing what their interests are, involves a series of video tapes, they get to see different sorts of professions that are what, exactly, thing they're qualified for or things they might be interested in, how does that work?

TB–Well, things we're hopefully exposing people to, we think that one way to do that is by using the video tape as well as by exposing them to some of the soft skills, the kinds of things you need to be successful once you're out there in the workplace, how to diffuse the emotionally-charged situations in the workplace, for example, or how to go about asking for help once you're in a position. Some people are feeling that is not the appropriate thing to do. However, we know that if you're in a work situation, you need some assistance, you need to know how to go about doing it, how to take on new assignments in the workplace. There are all kinds of things that can be enhanced by utilizing the video tape process.

DCB–Now this is a collaborative effort between you and Hard-Headed Women, Mt. Sinai Ministries and Minuteman Staffing, how does that work exactly, what does each group bring to the table?

TB–Tri-C is the fiscal agent for this project and also provides much of the training and the assessments. We're looking to Mt. Sinai Ministries, for example, to provide the life skill competencies. What we're talking about there is addressing such issues as finances and home life issues, social skills, even such things as drug and alcohol issues, or even transportation, how do you get to work and make sure that you're there on time? Those kinds of things are addressed by Mt. Sinai. Hard-Headed Women is doing the actual, initial recruitment and orientation piece that leads people into the project. We think this is rather unique in that we have combined these entities and we are also looking at Minuteman Staffing for doing some assistance with the placement piece of this.

DCB–You know, as the calendar clicks by as we've been talking over these past months, is your program going to be able to handle the numbers of people that need to be processed into the workforce before October 2000?

TB–Well, we certainly are gearing up in that direction. We see the need, and we're gearing up to meet that challenge. There may be other programs rolling out there, so other initiatives that we're working on, and we would certainly would love to share those with you in the future, but this is one we plan to roll out in January. Towards the end of January, we'll be taking in the first participants in this program. It is an eight-week program, and it'll be interesting to see how we do with this first group of folks to come in.

DCB–We'd like to check back with you on that.

TB–We certainly would love to speak with you once again.

DCB–Terry Butler is vice president of Business and Community Relations for Cuyahoga Community College. Thanks for joining us.

TB–Thank you.