CalWORKS Clock Ticking

When Ventura County set out to “reform welfare” two years ago, its goal was to get people off the dole and into the workplace. It is ironic that 83 jobs to be filled under the plan approved last week won’t go to welfare recipients at all, but to expanding the bureaucracy that serves them.

Nonetheless, we support Public Social Services Agency Director Barbara Fitzgerald in her efforts to institute CalWORKS, the state’s new welfare reform plan, effectively and efficiently.

There simply has to be a way to break the cycle that traps thousands of Ventura County families in a hollow existence without much opportunity, self-sufficiency, hope or pride. The plan that won the Board of Supervisors’ unanimous approval last week deserves the support of every segment of our community.

The strategy is to take a close look at each of the county’s 8,200 welfare families and determine what each of them needs in order to make its own way.

For some it is education, either to learn a marketable skill or to learn the basics of work ethic, habits and independent living.

For many it is child care. Single mothers head 90% of the county’s welfare families, which have a total of 17,000 children to care for.

For some it is transportation, or substance-abuse treatment, or psychological counseling, or medical help.

And for a daunting number, it is all of the above.

The plan will set up seven new “one-stop” career centers throughout the county, where all of these needs can be addressed. Most of the new hires will work as teams in these career centers, each team serving 1,000 to 1,500 families and establishing relationships with businesses, job mentors, community organizations, adult schools and community colleges to help clients find employment.

State and federal money will pay for most of the new employees and programs.

The new welfare strategy follows the 1996 federal Welfare Reform Act. The law imposes strict work and job-training requirements and limits to five years the time welfare clients can collect government cash assistance.

The clock is already ticking. Some of these efforts took effect in January; others will be phased in over the next two years. In time, the goal is for Ventura County’s roster of welfare families to shrink substantially. As that happens, the welfare bureaucracy can shrink as well.

There will always be some people who simply can’t function without some outside help. Making sure they get what they need but live as independently as possible is a big job. So is freeing the others from a life of dependence and stagnation.

“Get a job, get a better job, get a career, get a better life” is the progression Ventura County is preaching.

If it works, the rewards will be enormous--both for the individuals and for our community.