Sunday, January 31, 1999
Going down: Number of public assistance cases in county decreases
By David Crawford
Staff Writer
Over the past four years, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of public assistance cases in Seneca County.
Nancy Eberly, Seneca County Director of Human Services, credits the reduction to a community plan which helped to reduce the number of cases, and the flexibility in using money that the county has been granted by the state.
The community plan brought together 80 representatives of Seneca County agencies to help coordinate and plan services to help welfare recipients enter the workforce quickly.
Recent changes in public assistance laws made it necessary to have increased coordination in order to speed the recipient back into the workforce.
Ohio has placed a three-year time limit on welfare benefits. This is two years shorter than the five-year limit suggested by the federal government.
These new changes also have specified in more detail the amount of time a welfare recipient must either be working or in job training.
With the shorter time limits and increased work and training time, Eberly said the department's goal is to make new clients self sufficent as quickly as possible.
When a new client applies for welfare benefits, he must sign a contract pledging to meet the program goals and requirements.
After this, the case worker assigned to him examines his barriers to employability.
''With less cases, the case workers are able to provide more one-on-one assessments. We've been able to provide more extensive case management since the remaining clients have serious problems. We are dealing with clients who have serious problems like domestic violence, drug and alcohol dependency,'' said Eberly.
For those who need the most basic job training, the department has a class in a classroom setting that teaches the clients about work ethics, job searching and interviews.
For more advanced training, the department has created classes with Terra Community College on computers, workplace safety, tow truck operation, basic math and customer service skills.
These training class topics were identified as a result of a survey of Seneca County employers as to the needs and skills they felt new employees needed.
After helping train Welfare recipients to get a better job, Eberly said that the department is trying to help them keep it.
Another part of the community plan identified transportation and day care as two important determinants as to whether a client could keep a job or return to welfare.
Eberly said that the department, with the assistance of Pat DeMonte of Seneca County Area Transportation, was able to receive a grant to pay for the costs of helping these clients get to work.
For day care, she said the department has assembled a list of approved day care providers with extended hours or all-night care to assist clients who work second and third shifts.
As public assistance recipients are being held more accountable, so is the county human services department.
The human services department must meet certain standards to receive funding for the next year. They are required to have 25 percent reduction in the number of cases per year. They also must have certain percentages of their clients being involved in work or training activities each week.
The human services department has met those requirements. So far, they have easily met the 25 percent reduction. Sixty-four percent of one-parent and 78 percent of two-parent families in Seneca County have met the requirements for the amount of training and work time for each period.
To meet future Welfare reduction goals, Eberly said that the department is working to:
* Develop day care facilities for children who are sick or need emergency medical care
* Provide medical care for low income families
* Develop more classes with Terra Community College for worker training
* Teach the skills that not only make workers hireable, but promotable.