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NEW WELFARE RULES
MAKE RECIPIENTS
LOOK FOR WORK
WHETHER IT'S
THERE OR NOT
On Jan 1. 1997. Georgia. along with the
rest of the United States, began a massive
overhaul of its welfare system As the major
player in the state s welfare system here,
the Department of Family and Children
Services in Clarke County has seen its focus
shift from granting entitlements to prepar
ing welfare recipients
for jobs, according to
DECS officials
Our number one
goal is to get people
employed." said Sid
Jessup, deputy director
for the Clarke County
office. ' Everybody is job
readv Everybody may
not be job ready to be a
nurse or a doctor but
they re job reads to do
something
Before DECS
changed its emphasis,
the department had
already reduced its
caseload by add cases
during 19% bv em|>ha-
si/mg work, according
to Jessup.
If you want to tall,
about some savings,
from January 1990 to
December I99(i. that's $514,000.” he said
Our goal is for it to continue."
While federal requirements set a five-
year maximum lifetime limit for receiving
benefits under the Temporary Assistance
for Needy Eamilies. Georgia's program,
which is funded by TANE through block
grants, set a four-year limit
The Georgia Temporary Support Grant
also includes recipient-specific require
ments. such as work, patenting training,
family planning counseling and continuing
education.
Recipients must meet their individual
requirements or risk losing 25 percent of
their benefit check ior their first offense
and the loss of all benefits for a second,
according to Jessup.
"People are going to have to be respon
sible for their actions," Jessup said.
"They're going to have to be responsible,
and they re going to have to be willing to
take measures to insure that they are going
to be able to become self-sufficient. The
way to do that is through work."
In order to help their recipients find
employment. DECS requires them to make
20 employment contacts per week and to
take part in its Jobs Club, according to
Donna Sherrer-Gantt. an employment con
sultant with DFCS. The agency is also
attempting to sell area businesses on hiring
welfare recipients through inventive pro
grams. Sherrer-Gantt said.
Recipients must report to the Jobs Club,
at 455 N Lumpkin, daily from 8:30-10 a.m.
"What we re trying to do is get individu
als who may not have worked in a while or
who have been out of the job market, to get
them used to getting up every morning and
being somewhere.” Sherrer-Gantt said. "Our
lobby, when you walk in, you would think it
was an employment agency, because work
ED FLAGPOLE
is what were talking about here with indi
viduals. Then, secondly, we talk to them
about benefits
The club offers basic skills training,
counseling and employment contacts, and
it also brings in area employers to speak to
recipients, as well as to recruit new employ
ees, according to Sherrer-Gantt She said
over half of the participants in the club
have obtained employment
DECS has worked closely with the
Department of Labor to place welfare recq>-
ients in jobs The agency requires clients to
visit the Department of Labor first during
their weekly job searches, and also pro
vides them with access to the Department
of Labors computer job listings in its office,
Sherrer-Gantt said
We also have coordinated with them to
have their Job Corps representative come
out once per week to our office to talk to
individuals about Job Corps." she said
"We've been doing that for a month, and
we've had about three individuals to sign
up."
The Department of Labor has also
included DFCS on some industrial tours,
according to Naomi Glenn, a Eield Service
Manager with Department of Labor's local
office.
We want the DFCS staff to understand
w-hat employers are really looking for in
individuals." Glenn said. "They get a first
hand look at what employee qualifications
are. and then they will know how to prepare
the individuals for work."
Sherrer-Gantt said DFCS has been taking
advantage of these tours to try to sell area
businesses on its Subsidized Employment
program, though to date no employers have
taken part. Employers who hlr»» welfare
recipients can receive the recipient's bene
fit, as well as tax credits, during a training
period as much as nine months, she said.
"It's not just a DFCS thing, because if we
fail at making this program successful.
Clarke County and the whole community
will suffer." Sherrer-Gantt said.
Another cuange under the reform elimi
nates a policy that often penalized welfare
recipients once they found a job. Under the
old system, if a recipient found work after
receiving that month s benefit check. DFCS
made them refund to the agency, according
to Jessup
"It knocked them down for going out
and getting a job.” he said.
While some critics have said the
reforms may hurt children and other recipi
ents. Jessup emphasized the notion of per
sonal responsibility, but stressed DFCS will
APRIL 3D, 1 99V
work with families to insure they are mak
ing the progress toward self-sufficiency.
If you asked me if I can fix welfare, the
answer is no." Jessup said ' But. with com
munity help, we can make it a lot better
(Neil Swanson)
TEACHING
ASSISTANTS,
UNITE! YOU HAVE
NOTHING TO LOSE
BUT YOUR BRAINS
Ben Salt and Alex Bunker think graduate
students need a union to assure that they j
get treated equally with other University of
Georgia employees. They re inviting all UGA
graduate students, especially teaching
assistants, to a meeting at the Athens- i
Clarke County Library on Baxter Street :
from 6 45-8:45 p m Thursday, May 1 in the
conference room.
We really want people to come forward
and express their desires,' Salt says It s j
long overdue It's happening all over the j
United States, and it s time for the South
The University of Georgia can lead the j
way."
Salt and Bunker say graduate students j
are organized on 12 campuses m the United
States, which represents a small traction of
the 100,000 graduate student employees :
they sav are working in American universi
ties
Salt, who is British, and Bunker, who is
Canadian, realize they could be viewed as ;
outside agitators
"A British and a Canadian student orga
nizing at an American university what is
wrong with this picture’’ Salt says "But
well be joined by hundreds of good old
Georgians... We re just trying to get the
same rights as other university employ
ees... I had to return to Britain last year
because my father was dying.
I was docked a week s pay.
We simply want things like
paternity leave, holiday pay.
health benefits and having
more say in the classes we
teach "
"A lot of our working con
ditions involve grading
papers. Bunker says. "We
need guidelines to do an
acceptable amount of work.
You get papers dumped on
you with 12 hours to grade
them... I d much rather be
spending time on my
research, but somebody has
to do it."
Bunker says his organiz
ing work is not personally
motivated.
"I don t personally have
any grievances, he says. "I'm
happy in my work, and I'm
leaving in a year it’s just the
right thing to do because of
the good that can come out
of it.”
Bunker is working on a
Phd in physics; Salt is a doc
toral student in adult educa
tion. (Pete McCommons)
The meeting to discuss
organizing a union fur UGA
graduate students is Thursday May I from
6 75V> 75 ft in in the conference oh mi at the
Athens Clarke County Library on Baxter
Street
NEW McCORMACK
BOOK IS COMING
IN OCTOBER
Dr John McCormack, legendary profes
sor of large animal medicine and author of
Fields and Pastures Aeu . stopped by the
flagjtole office clutching the manuscript of
his new book, probably to be titled A Friend
of the flock
McCormack recently retired from the
UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and
newly recovered from an operation to
remove a cancerous kidney, was on his wav
to copy the Imok and mail it off to Crown,
which also published Fields and Pastures
Aeii'.
"They re m a hurry for it McCormack
grinned
Ft tend ol the flock, says McCormack is a
continuation of Fields and Pastures Veu
which traced the first years of his new j)r;.c-
tice of veterinary medicine in very rural
Alabama during the 1960 s
flock takes tip where Fields left off. with
the construction of tin- new vet dune and
continues through a panoply of anecdotes
involving the eager young vet against regur-
gitative animals reluctant humans and ret
ributive weather as he battles through with
humor and common sense McCormack is
as deft with a story as he apparently was
with a surgical needle: if you split your
sides laughing, he could come by and sew
you up. because his books attest to the fact
that he was one doctor who made house
calls no matter what swamp hid the house
McCormack is also author of Watch For
A Cloud of Dust I and II. and readers are well
advised to watch for Friend of the Flitch.
coming next fall from Crown (PMc)
ioho McCormack
A!c* Bunker (I.) Ben Salt