Date: Fri 28-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

business-BPW-mentors-Lee

Full Text:

Mentors: A Helping Hand Off Welfare

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

A unique mentoring program to help welfare recipients who are trying to enter

the work force is being sponsored locally by the Newtown Business &

Professional Women and the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DDS).

"The Family to Family Mentoring Program is an employment support program that

pairs people on welfare who want to work with people who have work

experience," said Joyce Lee, a project coordinator for the program.

Newtown residents who wish to participate as mentors are invited to attend

training sessions scheduled for March.

"We need a large variety of mentors," Ms Lee said. "The welfare recipients who

want to get jobs are looking for entry-level positions like health aides, with

the intent of later becoming nurses; or receptionists who want to get

secretarial skills, or factory or restaurant jobs. We need every type of

mentor - from professionals to restaurant managers and truck drivers."

The Family to Family Mentoring Program is part of the Jobs First program which

was implemented last year as part of welfare reform in Connecticut. Jobs First

is aimed at getting people off public assistance and into productive jobs. It

was launched in January 1996 by the DSS.

"Family to Family is based on a belief that volunteers in business and

community organizations do make a difference and that welfare recipients

entering the workforce benefit from receiving support from someone with

experience in the workforce," Ms Lee said.

The program consists of volunteer mentors who provide support and guidance to

welfare recipients who also have volunteered to be in the program. The first

group of mentors, from Saint Raphael's Hospital in New Haven, completed the

program last June. They were matched with 16 welfare recipients, seven of whom

had found jobs by the end of the program.

The mentors are trained on how to guide their protege on where - besides

newspaper ads - to look for jobs, how to dress appropriately, develop good

working habits and be motivated to stick with a job.

Welfare recipients who are in the program receive several hours of orientation

before they are matched with a mentor. After an initial face-to-face meeting,

contact will be by phone at least once a week.

"Sometimes the relationship develops into friendship and the pair may go

shopping together or get together more frequently, but that's entirely up to

what they feel comfortable with," Ms Lee said.

"Most importantly, the people who volunteer will make a difference in the

lives of others," she said. "

There are 4,000 families in the Waterbury area who will be going off welfare

as part of welfare reform, about 1,000 in the Danbury area and 800 in the

Torrington area, Ms Lee said. Of Waterbury's 4,000 welfare families, 89

percent are women who are the head of a household and 88 percent are between

the ages of 24 and 39.

"When the Peter & Paul candy factory advertised 50 jobs in Naugatuck recently,

thousands of people showed up to apply. There aren't a lot of jobs out there

and it can be very discouraging," Ms Lee said.

To encourage the transition from welfare to a job, the welfare reform act

provided funding so that welfare clients are covered by health insurance for

two years after they get employment and will receive a daycare voucher of up

to $75 a week per child.

Sixteen Newtown BPW members have signed up for the mentoring program. Other

residents are invited to participate.

There will be two separate five-hour training sessions: Tuesdays, March 11 and

18, from 6:30 pm to 9 pm, or Saturday, March 15, from 9 am to 2 pm. Training

will be held in the old courtroom on the lower level of Edmond Town Hall.

Advance sign-up is requested for scheduling purposes, but not required.

Last-minute participants can be accommodated.

For information about the program or to sign up for the training, call Joyce

Lee at WorkForce Connection in Waterbury at 203/574-6971, or Dr Della Schmid,

Newtown BPW co-president, at 426-5500.