From welfare to dignity
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff Newark, N.J.
Betty Hall wears two hats. They could be hard hats. Shes a
toughie.
Nikia Windleton agrees. She mean well. She kick us in our
butts. And sometimes its needed.
Hall is tough because she wants the young women and men from
Newarks inner city to succeed in an innovative two-year-plus federal
welfare-to-work project that started last summer. Hall wants them to earn high
school equivalency diplomas and get as much additional training as they can.
And then she wants them in jobs they want, jobs they can do, jobs they can move
up from.
Halls dual roles: She is coordinator of Essex Countys
welfare-to-work program, which gives recipients up to six months to make it
into the work force, and she is case manager of a new program offered by the
National Association of Service and Conservation Corps. The service and
conservation corps program uses U.S. Department of Labor funds to demonstrate
that with enough time, a high percent of welfare clients with no work
experience and minimal education can be schooled into the work force.
As Essex County welfare-to-work clients complete the service and
conservation corps program, and if theyre between the ages of 16 and 30,
Hall brings them into the International Youth Organization. That program itself
is a three-decade long miracle in survivorship in Newark, where it has been
singled out as one of 10 demonstration sites around the country.
Last summer 80 applied to make the transition.
We identified 45, certified 33 in the first semester,
Hall said. Of the original intake, there are 20 left.
Extra training
The second semester, which added more students, started Oct. 1 and
ends in June.
Nationwide, welfare-to-work has a mixed record. Income tax records
show that 50 percent of those on welfare four to five years ago have made it
into the job market. And actually, most of those got jobs on their
own, said Derek T. Winans, International Youth Organization co-deputy
director. Truth be known, most welfare-to-work programs didnt do
much. No one knows what happened to the other 50 percent dropped from the
welfare rolls, he said.
Do the extra training years make a difference?
There they are, replies Hall, pointing down the lunch
table to Windleton, mother of two young children, and Deborah Hardy, mother of
two high schoolers and a child in elementary school.
Added Hall, Welfare programs say get them ready to work in
six months and get them out of here. You cant do it. The next year is the
best year.
This young lady, she said, indicating Windleton,
was terminated in the first semester. But with the second semester I
brought her back. Shes working hard now. And this young lady, she
said, pointing to Hardy, was never terminated. Shes gone right
through.
Windleton wants to get into college and was studying for her math
GED. Hardy was in training as a receptionist. A third client, Ernest Zortorres,
wants a real estate license. Hes a 25 year-old father whos raising
his three-year-old son.
The lunchroom in the Timothy Still Complex at the corner of South
12th and Woodland was filled with noise from shifting folding chairs, the
clatter of serving platters, from conversation and laughter. Timothy Still was
a leader in the Newark African-American community of the 1950s and 60s.
The five contiguous International Youth Organization buildings, plus two others
nearby, are beacons of fresh paint and stability in an otherwise bleak
area.
Enjoying the fried chicken served by Marquitta Simon and Hall were
county inmates with their corrections officers. The inmates had been meeting
with representatives of Halls two groups, warning them of the risks on
Newarks mean streets.
Zortorres understands. Hes been arrested himself.
Second chances
The meeting between the inmates and Halls students was part
of the International Youth Organizations tell it like it is, then
try to do something about it philosophy.
Hardy and Windleton talked about the program, and themselves. They
get to the center daily by catching a ride, walking or taking the bus. If they
use the bus, theyre reimbursed.
Hardy, with her GED tests just ahead, has on-the-job training as
the Youth Corps front office receptionist. I like it. I like
answering the phone in a good manner, taking messages. I do a little filing. I
feel real good about myself.
What surprised her about learning to be a receptionist? You
have to keep smiling. She wasnt worrying too much about the GED --
except for the math. Thats the hardest for me.
She likes the team approach to learning, which the youth
organizations program offers, all trying to help each other at
their own speed. Twice a month a job development representative from the
U.S. Department of Labor visits South 12th to help students focus their skills
on the job market. The program helps both with job-hunting and further
education. Hardy, for example, could continue on to a secretarial training
school.
The program pays for Windletons daughters pre-school
and daycare for her son. Shes getting work experience at the same daycare
center.
Some mornings, her daughter asks her, Mom, are you going to
school, too? Windleton said. Once she has her diploma, she intends to
find a decent paying job and get into a local college. It wont be like it
was when she was younger. Then, instead of finishing school she was
running the streets, not listening. The result: she didnt get
the score in math she needed on the SAT and couldnt get into college.
Windleton said shes determined this time, after Hall gave
her a second chance.
Ernest Zortorres has someone watching over him, just as he watches
over his three-year old son. Its Jim Wallace, retired founder and
chairman emeritus of the youth organization.
Everytime I got in trouble he never turned his back on
me, Zortorres said. He came into the program to get off the
streets, he said.
Ive got a three-year-old son who stays with me. I have
to be right for him. He wants to go to school because Im going to
school.
Zortorres, who walks to the program each day, shares child-care
with his mother. She doesnt work until the afternoon, after Zortorres is
done with his studies. However, with longer workdays ahead as a teachers
aide at Cleveland School, as he gets deeper into the program, hell be
looking for child-care.
Loving into fuller life
GED in hand, hell sign up for a real estate course. The
program will cover the cost. After that, he intends to go into real estate
somewhere in New Jersey and doesnt mind if its Newark.
A second chancer, Zortorres said, this time Im
determined to go through. Mr. Wallace, he looked out for me a lot. I was bs-ing
around, got arrested again. They gave me another chance. Im going to do
it. [The program] might not be here forever.
John Taylor, the International Youth Organizations education
and training manager, understands the pressures on participants. They
drop out because of their home lives, family problems, financial difficulties.
Some kids are selling drugs -- you name it, theyre probably doing it.
Those who do stay, he said, are going it over
difficult odds. They want to do something different. They want to change their
lives. And we can help them do that. But its hard to motivate them every
single day to want to strive, to keep on striving. Just to get them here and
keep them here, thats the challenge, he said.
Whats the secret of success? When they feel they can
make it thats when they make it. If they dont feel that,
they wont.
Hall, Taylor and the others know what their role is. Loving their
younger neighbors into a fuller life. And if the loves a bit tough at
times, then thats the way it has to be.
(As NCR went to press, Deborah Hardy had her GED and a job
with Americorps. Windleton and Zortorres have just taken their GED tests and
are awaiting results.)
NCRs Newark visit continues an occasional series of
Other America articles that began with an overview of the downside
of the welfare-to-work program (NCR, April 4, 1999) based on studies
done by Network, the Catholic social justice lobby. The first road trip was to
the Navajo reservation at Four Corners, N.M., (NCR, Nov. 19, 1999) and
the fight against plans to begin mining uranium through the peoples sole
aquifer for drinking water. Subsequent Other America articles have
included a stop in Mississippi (NCR, Sept. 22, 2000), and the
Immigrant Nightmare (NCR, Sept. 29, 2000).
National Catholic Reporter, March 9,
2001
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