On September 18th, 2007, Human Resources Administration (HRA) Commissioner Robert Doar came to the Community Voices Heard (CVH) office for his second visit as HRA Commissioner to meet with members of the CVH Building the Workforce Campaign. 50 Public Assistance recipients that are also members of CVH attended the meeting.
CVH leaders Ann Valdez, Sindy Rivera and Brenda Beal facilitated the meeting, while leaders Maimuma DesVignes, Karen Ayee and Donna Johnson gave testimony about their experiences as clients of HRA. CVH leaders gave testimony about the problems with the unpaid Work Experience Program (WEP), the lack of education and training available to welfare recipients, the need for paid transitional jobs, the need for improved monitoring and oversight of HRA programs and the need for improved access to New York City’s Commission for Economic Opportunity programs for welfare recipients. While CVH members thanked Commissioner Doar for expanding the paid transitional jobs program by adding new positions in the NYC Department of Sanitation (a win for CVH!), CVH members also asked the commissioner to make several commitments to build upon this expansion. These included adding $33.6 million dollars in new money to the HRA budget to expand the paid transitional jobs program into multiple city agencies and to co-host a convening with CVH that invites the Commissioners of multiple city agencies to discuss the benefits of paid transitional jobs. Finally, CVH members asked the commissioner to spend a day walking in the shoes of a low-income person.
While the commissioner did not commit to take action on any of the above, he acknowledged the importance of transitional jobs and let CVH members know that he is aware that this is a priority for CVH. In turn, CVH members were sure to let the Commissioner know that they will continue to work hard to push the expansion of transitional jobs programs and to ensure that HRA knows the priorities of the real experts about welfare, the PA recipients themselves! The Commissioner last visited CVH on February 28th, 2007 and agreed to return every six months to meet with CVH members.
