Community Voices Heard

"Target of Opportunities" - City Limits Investigates

This is selected pages from the Spring issue of City Limits Investigates. The full issue can be purchased from City Limits here. City Limits is a non-profit magazine that focuses on policy. This issue is about poverty policies and Community Voices Heard and its members are quoted throughout the issue.

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2008.04 City Limits INVESTIGATES.pdf	1.11 MB

"As the Economy Worsens: Helping People Find Jobs" - Gotham Gazette

This is an article that appeared into today's Gotham Gazette. The article is about how the economic slump has affected the workforce. The article speaks about welfare programs and whether or not they are effective at helping to move people into the workforce. Community Voices Heard board member and leader in the Welfare/Workforce Campaign Ketny Jean-Francois is quoted in this article. The article is attached below or can be found on the Gotham Gazette's website.

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2008.04.22 Gotham Gazette_ As the Economy Worsens_ Helping People Find Jobs.pdf	75.76 KB

$2.5M in TANF for Career Pathways in final State Budget!

Community Voices Heard leaders Michelle Cannady and Mia Bell along with other members on the Building the Workforce Campaign are pleased that Commissioner David Hansell of the Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance in New York State included 2.5 million dollars of the State TANF budget in his final executive budget for Career Pathways for Education and Training programs. Michelle Cannady and Mia Bell met with Commissioner Hansell on numerous occasions and gave testimony at the State Budget Hearings. We are pleased to have been a part of the process along with other organizations including the Hunger Action Network, Workforce Alliance, Federation for Protestant Welfare Agencies, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Fiscal Policy Institute, Community Services Society and many more.

"Exit Stage Left" - New York Metro

This is an article in today's New York Metro about Republican Presidential Candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and how he lost the Florida primary last night. As a result of his loss in Florida, he will be most likely quitting the race for the White House. The article focuses on all of the negative things Giuliani did while he was Mayor of New York including a quote about the WEP program from Community Voices Heard Board Member, Yvonne Shields.

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2008.01.30 Exit Stage Left - Metro.pdf	661.23 KB

"Help the poor, not only the pols" - Daily News

This article is an editorial by Errol Louis regarding New York State Governor Spitzer considering to raise the pay of the state Legislature, which is currently $79,500 a year. The article quotes CVH Members Ann Michelle Valdez, a Brooklyn Public Housing Resident, and Harold Gardner, a CVH member from our Poughkeepsie chapter. Our members helped to point out that those receiving public assistance have not seen an increase in the welfare cash grant since 1990 and if the Governor is considering giving an increase for the pols he should also consider giving an increase in benefits for the poor.

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2008.01.27 Help the poor, not only the pols.pdf	321.23 KB

Anita Graham on BBC News

Recently reporters from the BBC came to New York to find out about WEP and how it works here. They were interested in WEP because there is talks of instituting a similar system in Britain and they wanted to find out what people here thought about the program. They interviewed Anita Graham, the Welfare / Workforce Organizer at Community Voices Heard you can check out this link for the video.

You can also read the article and see other videos the BBC made relating to what is going on in Britain on the BBC website. Click this link for the BBC website.

Legal Aid Society Holds WeCARE Workshop for HRA Clients

The Legal Aid Society will be hosting a workshop for clients in the HRA We Care program on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 111 Livingston Street, 7th Floor, Brooklyn NY.

(The workshop is in the same building as the welfare fair hearings at 14 Boerum Place)

Community Voices Heard members & staff will be in attendance. If you would like to confirm your attendance please email anita@cvhaction.org or alexa@cvhaction.org.

(see flyer attached)

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We Care Workshop Flyer 1.15.08.pdf	83.96 KB

CVH Members are Campaigning to Win More Paid Transitional Jobs!!!

WHEN: TUESDAY, DEC. 18TH
WHERE: CVH OFFICE 170 E. 116th St
TIME: 9:00 AM

COME OUT & DEMAND A MEETING WITH THE COMMISSIONERS!
WE WANT REAL JOBS!!

Transitional Jobs are better than unpaid WEP assignments because you earn a real wage, can put the job on your resume, receive 1 day paid job search, and have power to make decisions over your life and have money to spend on bills, clothing, household responsibilities & activities for yourself & your family!!

Transitional jobs can last from 6 months to 1 year!!

For more information contact Anita at (212) 860-6001 x 114 or email her at anita@cvhaction.org and check out the PDF version of the flyer below.

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Outreach Flyer.pdf	102.28 KB

"NYC to Lead Country in Remaking Poverty Gauge" - City Limits

This article is from City Limits and is about the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) changing the poverty line for NYC. New York is an expensive city and the poverty lines that make sense for other parts of the country may not make sense for people in our city. Community Voices Heard Leader Marilyn Bezear and Community Voices Heard Board Member Sandra Killet are both quoted in this article.

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2007-11-19 NYC to Lead Country in Remaking Poverty Gauge - City Limits.pdf	846.88 KB

"Welfare Groups Chided -- And Rehired by City" City Limits Weekly Article

This article appeared on http://www.citylimits.org. It is about the WeCARE program and talks about the report put out by Community Voices Heard. You can read the article by downloading the PDF below and you can read the CVH report on our website at this link.

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2007-10-29 Welfare Groups Chided and Rehired by City City Limits.pdf	30.93 KB

"Criticism for Welfare Program" WNYC

Here is a report from WNYC New York Public Radio about the recent City Council Hearing about Welfare and the WeCARE program. They quoted Community Voices Heard member Tyletha Samuels talking about how the program failed to exempt her from work for long enough to recover from her knee surgery.

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2007-10-23 Criticism for Welfare Program WNYC.pdf	29.1 KB

"Deficiencias en Programa de Ayuda Laboral" ~ El Diario

This is an article about the WeCARE hearings. They quote Community Voices Heard member Ann Valdez as well as discuss problems with the WeCARE program that we uncovered in our report, "Failure to Comply: The Disconnect Between Design and Implementation in HRA's WeCARE Program". The article is from El Diario and is in Spanish.

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2007-10-23 Deficiencias en programa de ayuda laboral El Diario .pdf	50.71 KB

"Audit Blasts City Welfare Program for Most Needy" - Daily News Article About WeCARE

This article is about the WeCARE program and how it does not work. It mentions the report that we put out about the WeCARE program and they quote Ann Valdez, a Community Voices Heard leader, as well as Alexa Kasdan, the CVH Polilcy & Research Associate.

You can download the attached article as a PDF and you can view the report referenced in this article on our site at http://cvh.mayfirst.org/node/145

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2007-10-22 Audit blasts city welfare program for most needy Daily News.pdf	251.23 KB

HRA Commissioner Robert Doar Visits Community Voices Heard to Meet with CVH Members

On September 18^th, 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 28^th, 2007 and agreed to return every six months to meet with CVH members.

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Ann Valdez Testimony HRA and CEO.doc	25 KB
Karen Ayee Testimony Final.doc	22.5 KB
Maimuna DesVignes Testimony Final.doc	25 KB
Donna Johnson Testimony on WEP.doc	22.5 KB
Final Agenda Doar 9.18.07.doc	39.5 KB

HRA Comissioner Robert Doar Will Be At CVH Office September 18th

On Tuesday September 18th HRA Commissioner Robert Doar will be meeting with Community Voices Heard from 5pm till 7:30pm. This is the second meeting, it is the follow up to a meeting we had with Robert Doar six months ago. Although this meeting has a structured agenda around the creation of more transitional jobs, education and training, and HRA WeCARE programs we will be having people fill out questionaire forms and do testimonies to give to Commissioner Doar. We would like to invite people who are transitioning through the HRA system to be in attendance.

CVH Members Testify at State Assembly Hearing on the Welfare Grant

On Thursday, September 6th in NYC and Friday, September 7th in White Plains, CVH members were testifying at hearings held by members of the New York State Assembly about the "adequacy of the public assistance grant." CVH was asked to give real-life testimony about how the dangerously low level of the grant -it has not been raised in 17 years!- affects our lives.

The hearings were spearheaded by Assemblyman Keith Wright, who is the Chair of the Social Services Committee, to gather information and expertise to explain whether or not the grant should be raised. The people testifying included social service providers, advocates, religious leaders, and of course public assistance recipients, and were overwhelmingly in support of raising the cash assistance grant.

At the hearing in New York City, CVH leader Ann Valdez testified by explaining how she attempts to budget her cash assistance grant to cover her needs, but it is never quite enough.

In White Plains, CVH members Denise Bonitto from Yonkers and Harold Gardner from Poughkeepsie gave testimony. They each have unique stories, yet all asked the question: if the cost of living keeps rising, why not the welfare grant?

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Ann Valdez Testimony.doc	107.5 KB
Denise Bonitto Testimony.doc	108 KB
Harold Gardner testimony.doc	108.5 KB

Pilot Program Fights Poverty With Cash Incentives

Sandra Killett, Co-Chair of CVH is in this WNYC radio piece. She was spoken to as a recipient of the Cash Incentives program, but while personally she is pleased to get additional resources into her household, politically and organizationally she challenges its very design and purpose. Below is the segment from WNYC with Sandra as well as the full text.

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2007-08-27 WNYC Sandra Killet Talks About Conditional Cash Transfer.doc	26.5 KB

Paid Transitional Jobs Expansion Initiative: Establishing JTP Positions in Multiple City Agencies

The Paid Transitional Jobs Expansion Initiative would build on the success of the existing Parks Opportunity Program (POP). It would invest $33.6 million dollars in the HRA budget in order to increase the number of positions available, expand into new agencies, lengthen the program to a full-year, improve access to education and training options, and develop career ladder pathways within city agencies.

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JTP Expansion 2007.doc	49.5 KB
TransitionalJobsCostEstimate8.49.xls	33.5 KB
JTP Expansion-Doar.ppt	296.5 KB

Failure to Comply: The Disconnect Between Design and Implementation in HRA's WeCARE Program

In early 2005, the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) implemented the Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment (WeCARE) Program to determine which public assistance recipients and applicants have multiple and complex barriers to employment and provide them with specialized services that were not available under HRA’s previous support and training programs. Based on discussions from June 2005 through August 2006 with over 700 welfare recipients in WeCARE, as well as in-depth focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and phone surveys with 100 of those participants, this report is a study of how the WeCARE program is supposed to work and whether or not it is providing the support and specialized services it is designed to deliver to public assistance recipients with disabilities. The report lays out the policies put in place by New York City to serve public assistance recipients with disabilities, relays findings based on participants’ first-hand experiences with the program and offers recommendations for systemic and service delivery improvements.

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WeCareReportFinal.pdf	603.79 KB
Failure to Comply.ppt	1.16 MB

4 Articles About the CVH WeCARE Report

4 articles that speak about the report we published exposing issues with the WeCARE program. You can read the full report in the reports section of our website or you can read what the media has to say about our report here.

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3-5-07 NY Times WeCARE.pdf	142.63 KB
3-15-07 Daily News WeCARE Report.pdf	141.23 KB
3-5-07 Village Voice WeCARE.pdf	81.93 KB
3-8-07 City Limits WeCARE .pdf	91.93 KB

Research Report “Failure to Comply” Finds Implementation Flaws in $200 Million City Program

According to the report we released this morning, the approximately $66.6 million per year that the Human Resources Administration (HRA) allocated to a program to serve an annual 45,600 public assistance recipients with barriers to employment, is neither addressing their barriers nor helping them move towards self-sufficiency. New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio, Chair of the General Welfare Committee introduced the report at today’s press conference. He said, "This is about accountability. WeCARE is intended to help people with complex or multiple disabilities reach their maximum level of self-sufficiency."

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2007-03-05 Press Release WeCARE Report.doc	33.5 KB

HRA Back to Work Support and Accountability Initiative: Technical Assistance/Training, Monitoring/Assessment, and Evaluation

The City Council Welfare and Contracts Committees should jointly oversee the HRA Back to Work Support and Accountability Initiative as the two Council Committees with interest in the HRA Back to Work contracts. Funds would initially be transferred to an intermediary organization to manage the initiative. Three separate Requests for Proposals (RFPs) could next be drafted, one for each different part of the initiative, and then distributed.

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Back to Work Accountability 2007.doc	36.5 KB

"Criticism and Praise Offered for Departing Welfare Chief" - NY Times

Verna Eggleston the Commissioner of the Human Resources Administration (HRA) is resigning in order to work for the Bloomberg Family Foundation. CVH Board Co-Chair Sandra Killet is quoted in the article. Although we were optimistic when Verna Eggleston took over as Commisioner from Jason Turner, essential changes in the City's workfare program were not made during her time at HRA.

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12-29-06 NY Times Eggleston.pdf	161.23 KB

"Bloomberg Plans New Office to Help New York's Poor" - NY Times

Mayor Bloomberg plans on creating a new center to deal with poverty in New York City. This will be called the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) and Bloomberg plans on using private funds to finance the center's more experimental programs. There will be an emphasis on rewarding "good behavior" and promoting self-sufficiency. CVH Member Gloria Walker is quoted about her views of the Mayor's new commission.

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12-19-06 NY Times CEO.pdf	122.63 KB

4 Articles About Bloomberg's Commission for Economic Opportunity

These are 4 articles about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-poverty commission, the Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). The articles talk about how the CEO plans on putting emphasis on dealing with 3 very specific groups: young children, young adults, and the working poor.

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9-18-06 Metro NY Day In the Life.pdf	181.23 KB
9-19-06 Daily News CEO.pdf	91.93 KB
9-19-06 NY Times CEO.pdf	131.93 KB
9-25-06 Gotham Gazette CEO.pdf	868.93 KB

2 articles about CVH's reaction to the lastest Federal Census Bureau's statistics poverty statistic release

CVH held a press conference at Columbus Circle on the same day that the Federal Census Bureau released its annual poverty statistics in order to highlight issues with the Mayor's Commission for Economic Opportunity the main commission that deals with poverty in New York City. After the press conference CVH members entered the Time Warner building demanding to speak with Richard Parsons, the CEO of Time Warner, and a Co-Chair of the Commission for Economic Opportunity. Both articles include quotes from CVH members.

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9-7-06 Amsterdam News CEO .pdf	101.23 KB
9-19-06 Bronx Times CEO.pdf	191.23 KB

Low-Income New Yorkers React to the Release of Plan by Mayor’s Commission for Economic Opportunity

At 12:00 today, the Mayor’s Commission for Economic Opportunity released its plan on how to reduce poverty in New York City. The Commission, which was established in March 2006, was to release its plan by Labor Day 2006. Following the release of the plan, members of Community Voices Heard responded to the content and future steps of this final plan. Members of the group are calling on Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs to create a strong plan to monitor and evaluate the Commission’s work and to include low-income New Yorkers in the monitoring process.

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2006-09-18 Press Release CEO Recs Release.doc	32 KB
2006-09-18 Press Release - Quotes on Release Date (CEO).doc	21 KB

CVH's Recommendations to the Commission for Economic Opportunity

This document is Community Voices Heard's recommendations to the Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). We created this because we would like to see New York City become # 1 in the nation for creating good, living wage jobs for its residents and providing people with the necessary preparation (education & training, paid job experience, etc.) to access these jobs. We believe that our recommendations will bring us closer to that goal.

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CVH's Recommendations.doc	29.5 KB

2 Articles About the Mayor's Commission for Economic Opportunity

These are two articles about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). This Commission was formed by the Mayor in January and is supposed to be researching and developing plans to combat poverty in New York City. The mayor insisted that the Commission focus on plans that have proven to work and to narrow the scope of their work to children, young adults, and the working poor.

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8-26-06 NY Times CEO.pdf	173.33 KB
8-30-06 NY Sun CEO.pdf	141.93 KB

On Day Census Bureau Releases Annual Poverty Statistics, Low-Income New Yorkers Call on Mayor Bloomberg’s CEO to offer solutions

At 12:30pm today, shortly after the Census Bureau released its annual poverty statistics, 50 unemployed and low-income New Yorkers, members of Community Voices Heard (CVH), held a press conference to testify about personal experiences living in poverty and to offer recommendations to Mayor Bloomberg’s Commission for Economic Opportunity. On this same day, one year ago, Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast, exposing the economic and racial divide in the United States. The group gathered today, weeks before the Mayor’s Commission is due to release its final plan for poverty reduction, to call attention to the poverty crisis in New York City and demand that the Commission create a bold and concrete plan.

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2006-08-29 Press Release Census CEO Action Final.doc	30.5 KB

"Mayor Eyes 'Starbucks One-Stop' As a New Approach to Poverty" - The Sun

Mayor Michael Bloomberg heard recommendations for a variety of new plans to deal with poverty from his Commission for Economic Opportunity (CEO). Although nothing has been decided upon yet one proposal included a "Starbucks One-Stop" where individuals could get help with everything from legal work to Food Stamps. CVH Member Ketny Jean-Francois is quoted.

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8-10-06 NY Sun CEO.pdf	261.93 KB

"Fighting Poverty and a Decade of Welfare Reform" - Gotham Gazette

This article compares and contrasts Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approach to Welfare Reform and anti-poverty initiatives and those of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. CVH is referenced as an organization that is studying New York City's anti-poverty initiatives to figure out whether or not they are effective.

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6-19-06 Gotham Gazette.pdf	354.03 KB

"Low-Income New Yorkers Play Dead to Protest Welfare Cuts" - Legislative Gazette

Members of CVH preformed a skit in Albany where Governer George E. Pataki was the grim reaper and his cuts in services caused the death of those who rely on welfare to survive. CVH Board Member Yvonne Shields is quoted.

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4-3-06 Legislative Gazette Welfare.pdf	141.23 KB

Parks Opportunity Program (POP) External Monitoring Report

This report shares results from Community Voices Heard’s ongoing monitoring of the Parks Opportunity Program (POP), the largest paid transitional jobs program in New York City. The research documents the experiences of Job Training Participants (JTPs) who participated in POP in FY04 and FY05. It builds upon CVH’s earlier research of FY01 and FY02 POP participants, looking concretely into changes in the program (collapsing of the varied entry-level job titles into one distinct “training participant” category, union status elimination, wage reduction, welfare case maintenance, etc.) and how these have impacted program participants. The report is based on ongoing discussions with 1,320 JTP workers, 130 field surveys, 4 focus groups, and 9 extensive individual interviews.

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JTPMonitoringReport.doc	142 KB
JTP Quick Facts FY04-FY05.doc	79.5 KB
JTP Quick Facts FY06-FY07.doc	131 KB

Putting People First!

Putting People First! would designate a $75 million budget line item for a citywide initiative to provide a total of 2,500 participant slots across two programs:

(1) Emergency Employment and Job Experience through an Expansion of Paid Transitional Jobs Programs, and

(2) Career-ladder Training Program Coupled with Paid Internships Targeted at High-Wage Growth Industries.

The $75 million is intended to build upon promising city initiatives and would include intensive case management, job placement, and retention services. A variety of City host agencies could potentially administer the paid transitional jobs program with oversight from either the Human Resources Administration (HRA) or the Department of Small Business Services (SBS). SBS is also put forth as a potential administering agency for the career-ladder training initiative program.

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Job Proposal.doc	96.5 KB

The Revolving Door: Research Findings on NYC's Employment Services and Placement System and Its Effectiveness In Moving People

This report documents the results of a comprehensive examination of the Employment Services and Placement (ESP) System, a key program developed and administered by the Human Resources Administration (HRA) to further its work-first approach. The renewal contracts, established by the start of 2003, allocated up to $130 million for program services over three years – estimating that the program would service almost 80,000 people in that time period. At each ESP site, a combination of job readiness, job skills training, and job search assistance is offered to prepare individuals for and connect them to jobs; services are then provided to help participants retain jobs. Combining 600 client surveys, 19 provider interviews, and 2004 monthly performance data tracked by HRA, the research looks at whether or not job readiness and job placement programs accomplish what they set out to, what stands in their way, and how they might be improved to better serve the needs of the clients, the providers and the system at large.

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The Revolving Door - Full Report.pdf	1.01 MB
The Revolving Door - Executive Summary.pdf	446.35 KB
Table A Page 118.pdf	38.15 KB
Table B Page 119.pdf	43.9 KB
Revolving Door Presentation.ppt	202 KB

Wages Work! An Examination of New York City’s Parks Opportunity Program (POP) and Its Participants

The Parks Opportunity Program (POP) is the largest public sector paid transitional jobs program in the country. When initiated in March of 2001, the POP Program, along with other Transitional Jobs Programs in New York City, represented a significant shift away from forcing welfare recipients to perform unpaid workfare assignments (known as WEP) toward paying people a wage for working in city agencies on a transitional basis. This report uncovered the experiences of a random sample of 100 of the first 3,500 program participants through intensive one-on-one interviews, comparing participants’ experiences in both POP and WEP. Participant responses, in addition to findings from other transitional jobs research, welfare to work studies, and documents generated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and Human Resources Administration, tell an important story about the value of paid transitional jobs over WEP and the policy and programmatic challenges yet to be addressed.

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titlepagecolor.pdf	721.39 KB
Wages Work Layout.pdf	486.55 KB
Wages Work! FINAL.ppt	207.5 KB

"Tale of Two Cities - Report: New York Leads Nation in Income Inequality" - Metro

The gap between the rich and poor in New York City is enormous. This article discusses this fact and goes into how Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the Human Resources Administration (HRA) to improve its services. Sondra Youdelman (CVH's Policy & Research Director) is quoted in this article about the report CVH recently released.

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1-27-06 Metro NY Poverty.pdf	111.23 KB

Time Limits or Time Bomb? Assessing New York City Welfare as the Five-Year Time Limits Approach

In December of 2001, over 76,000 New York State families receiving public assistance were set to reach their five-year time limits on federal public assistance. Of these, over 40,000 were based in New York City. An additional, 26,232 New York City families were to reach their time limits by September 2002. From October 2000 to March 2001, Community Voices Heard administered a survey to 595 individuals at over 30 welfare centers around the City, in an effort to evaluate the services and information they were receiving in advance of the time limits. This report documents the findings from this research, including a look at confusion among clients of the system as to what the time limits actually mean, challenges of accessing vital programs and supports, inefficient application processes and unjust sanction practices, and benefit loss that drives families deeper into poverty.

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Time Limits Report 8.23.doc	144 KB
Time Limits - Exec. Sum..doc	35 KB

WEP: Work Experience Program…New York City’s Public Sector Sweat Shop Economy

In the summer of 1999, at the peak of NYC’s unpaid workfare program, Community Voices Heard initiated a research project to determine what workfare workers were doing at their Work Experience Program (WEP) assignments in New York City. Members were increasingly reporting being forced to do more detailed work and perform significant work responsibilities at their work sites. Between June 1999 and February 2000, CVH members, staff and interns interviewed 649 WEP workers at 131 worksites in Manhattan and the Bronx. Descriptions of entry-level union job titles were used as the basis for the questionnaire and as a point of comparison between job tasks. This report demonstrates that workfare is displacing paid union entry level employees with a second tier of unpaid workfare workers who are doing a substantial portion, if not the entire workload, of formerly paid entry-level employees working in New York City’s public agencies. The survey results also show that the incentives for the city to use workfare labor instead of unionized workers making a decent salary is such that workfare workers are unlikely ever to get real wages for the jobs they do, as long as WEP remains in place.

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WEP Report Exec. Summary.doc	46.5 KB
WEP Work Experience Program.pdf	3.13 MB
WEP Report Executive Summary (Spanish).pdf	486.83 KB

Welfare to Work: Is it Working? The Failure of Current Welfare-to-Work Strategies To Move The Hardest To Employ Into Jobs

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.

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Public Job Creation Report.doc	570 KB
Welfare to Work Report Executive Summary (Spanish).pdf	416.13 KB