Community Voices Heard

In the summer of 1998, Community Voices Heard surveyed 483 people on welfare at workfare worksites, welfare centers and social service agencies in Northern Manhattan and throughout the city. Contrary to stereotypes, survey results demonstrated that people on welfare want to work, have worked in the past, and are actively searching for work. This report evaluates welfare-to-work strategies (workfare, job creation and job search assistance), looks at how welfare recipients look for and find work, and analyzes barriers to employment among welfare recipients. The study concluded that people on welfare remain unemployed because of a lack of jobs, personal barriers to employment and the failure of New York City’s welfare to work programs to adequately serve “hard-to-employ” welfare participants. The results from the survey make a case for community job creation. Unlike workfare, bona-fide jobs are voluntary (employers and employees match interests), pay a cash income (and qualify individuals for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit) and ensure all labor rights such as sick leave, prevailing wage, a grievance procedure and the right to join a union.