Washington State Awards $4 Million for Community Jobs Expansion

Due to the successful track record of the Community Jobs TJ program for TANF recipients, an additional $8 million was granted to expand the existing Community Jobs program and to create supplemental programs to meet new federal TANF requirements.

• Community Jobs has a proven history of success for TANF recipients – 64 percent of statewide participants are successfully placed in unsubsidized employment.
• In spite of the new TANF regulations, the state of Washington continues to view Community Jobs as one of the best methods for moving participants from welfare to work.
• In addition to the Community Jobs program, three new supplemental programs have been created, which allow the state to meet federal TANF regulations while not altering their core Community Jobs program. The new Works Programs will assist participants in participating full time and potentially moving them to Community Jobs.

Diane Klontz, Program Manager, notes, “Meeting the new DRA regulations are a challenge; however, our statewide partnership has worked together to promote innovative approaches to serving our participants while ensuring the federal participation rates are met.”
 
For more information on the Community Jobs program, contact Diane Klontz.

 
Growing Home Inc., a social enterprise TJ program, was featured in the Medill Reports, a publication of Northwestern University. Growing Home Inc. is an urban, organic agriculture business in Chicago. Click here to read the feature story.

Careers, Etc., a TJ program serving people with criminal records in Rockford, Illinois, was recently featured on the local Rockford news. The NTJN interviewed Careers, Etc. President and CEO, Stephen Haight, to learn how he engages the media. This was his advice:

• Tip #1 – You have to get out into the community. Being an active community member means stepping outside your program and attending neighborhood and city events. Go to press conferences on issues pertaining to your program or the populations with whom you work. Go to events sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Be visible.
• Tip #2 – Introduce yourself and build personal relationships with members of the press. When you are at community events, walk up to a reporter, introduce yourself, and tell them about your program. A good reporter is always looking for potential leads, big or small. The recent news story on Careers, Etc. was the result of a cultivated relationship. When policy changes occurred and employment programs for formerly incarcerated individuals became a hot topic, the reporter initiated the news story and called Haight.
• Tip #3 – Put a human interest angle within the program and system context. Media are not looking for the history of your program or your lack of funding – they want to hear personal success stories. Haight recommends not pursuing the media until you have some successes worth bragging about. Educate the media about structural issues and statistics while giving the context of the individuals who are impacted.
• Tip #4 – Be prepared. No matter how hard you push, the media controls the trigger, and you have to be ready on a moment’s notice. For this reason, Haight gives his media contacts his cell phone number so he is easily accessible. Prepare ahead of time what message you want clearly communicated, and learn how to talk about your program in small sound bites. Short, concise sentences that say a lot in a few words are less likely to be cut when the editing takes place. When the reporter initially called Careers, Etc., Haight also immediately arranged interviews with a past participant and an employer.

Haight warns that the shelf-life of media spots, particularly in television, is short, so use it while you can. He suggests including contact information as a way to channel public interest directly to your program. After Careers, Etc. was featured on the news, employers were calling Haight about how to get involved. 

Click here to view the media clip of Careers, Etc. featured on the Rockford news.

Click here to contact Stephen Haight for more information about Careers, Etc.

Click here to read the NTJN’s “Tips for Building Media Influence for Transitional Jobs.”

Innovative Employment Approaches and Programs for Low-Income Families by Karin Martinson and Pamela Holcomb, The Urban Institute, 2007. 

Prepared for the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this study distills key lessons learned from current research and profiles innovative approaches and programs for improving the employment prospects of low-income families. The paper identifies and profiles 51 programs that improve the economic success of low-income parents. A helpful appendix section with program design information on individual programs around the country is included.

Employment-based experience, such as Transitional Jobs, is listed as one of four innovative categories (pp. 22-24).

Six TJ programs are profiled in the appendix:

• 2 state-wide programs in Washington and Georgia
• 2 local, private programs – Transitional Work Corporation in Philadelphia and Goodwill Industries in San Francisco
• 2 social enterprise programs – Rubicon, Inc. in Richmond, California and The Enterprising Kitchen in Chicago

The following is a list of lessons learned from all the innovative programs:

To read the entire report on innovative employment programs, click here.

Making Social Enterprises Work for Welfare: The Value of Funding Transitional Jobs Through Profits by David Altstadt, Georgetown University, 2007

This master’s thesis explores the intersection of Transitional Jobs as an effective welfare-to-work strategy and the use of social enterprise revenues as a method of funding. It strengthens the case for TJ in states needing to increase work participation rates to comply with the Deficit Reduction Act. The paper begins with a comprehensive history of welfare-to-work ideology, strategies, and the value of Transitional Jobs in achieving meaningful outcomes. It goes on to discuss the benefits and challenges of the social enterprise structure and the opportunity social enterprises hold for making Transitional Jobs programs more affordable. Case studies from current TJ programs include:

To read the paper, click here.

For more information on starting a social enterprise TJ program, contact Melissa Young at the National Transitional Jobs Network.

For more information or questions on this paper, contact:

David Altstadt
Senior Research Associate
Community Research Partners
614-224-5917 ext. 103

Recommendations to Strengthen Title I of the Senate WIA Reauthorization Bill Passed by the 109th Congress by Allegra Baider, Abbey Frank, and Evelyn Ganzglass, May 2007.
As the 110th Congress turns once again to WIA reauthorization, a new opportunity exists to ensure that our public workforce system is responsive to the diverse needs of low-wage workers and low-income populations. This paper focuses specifically on recommendations to strengthen the bipartisan Senate WIA bill that passed in the 109th Congress (HR 27 EAS, which incorporated S 1021). TJ programs currently using or considering WIA funds will find this document a helpful resource on the strengths and limitations of WIA funding and how to specifically advocate for useful policy reform. 

Click here to read this report.

Click here to visit additional WIA resources from The Workforce Alliance.

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