wfn.org | Jersey City Episcopal Community Development receives grant

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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99-048
Jersey City Episcopal Community Development receives $2Million grant
by Janice Newman Teetsell
(ENS) The Jersey City Episcopal Community Development Corporation
(JCECDC) went to Trenton, New Jersey's state capital, with a
welfare-to-work grant proposal asking for $700,000, and came back with
$2 million from the 21st Century Communities Partnership Initiative.
Citing a strong business and social services collaboration, the State
chose JCECDC to be one of five agencies to help welfare recipients move
from dependence to independence as the State withdraws from the welfare
business.

JCECDC has taken the phrase "failure is not an option" and built a
program around it that will find employment for up to 400 welfare
recipients facing the termination of their benefits. Why the confidence
that they will succeed? "We don't get paid if the program does not
work," explains Tom Nickerson, executive director of JCECDC. "We are a
nonprofit agency being asked to approach the welfare-to-work issues in a
businesslike manner."

Welfare recipients will be motivated to participate as their benefits
diminish, and the Program Partners will be motivated to see that their
participants succeed or they will not receive the full funding. Even the
initial efforts will be the responsibility of JCECDC, as it will fund
the intake, training, job development, job coaching and job support
components.

With a cap of $5,000 per participant, JCECDC will receive one-half of
the funding at the completion of the job-training component, 30 percent
when the participant is hired and the remaining 20 percent when the
participant has been on the job for 90 days. Although the program is
slated to go for two years, reaching 150-200 persons each year,
Nickerson admits that if they place the maximum of 400 participants in
jobs - and keep them there for 90 days the program could max out in a
much shorter period.
Formula for success
JCECDC borrowed ideas from private industry to develop a formula for
success: focus groups to find out what the consumers - the welfare
recipients and the business community-want. They looked at who the
welfare recipients really are. They found battered spouses, displaced
homemakers, and parents with special needs children and with previous
work experience outside of the home. Their present circumstances caused
the public assistance recipients to develop skills that are transferable
to the workplace-juggling appointments, navigating government agencies
to locate needed services for their children and themselves, tutoring
their children, and stretching limited dollars.

These are people who have been through the job training system before.
"They would show us books of certificates received from training
programs, but they still didn't have a job," Nickerson remarks. "We have
to counter a history of false hopes. Those receiving public assistance
are more willing to get ready for a job if it is real."

Finding real jobs also requires a form of market research. Businesses
are wary of another program that sends them job applicants without the
minimum requirements for the job. "Businesses want to hire entry-level
people who are trainable, someone who is ready and prepared to work and
who will move up in the business," said Nickerson. He found that
businesses are also concerned about the lack of a support system for the
new workers and their families. "They did not want the new hires to be
on the job two days and then have to go home to their children."

The program is also interested in finding jobs that pay more than a
minimum wage, which offers no motivation for welfare recipients. "The
diocese has a living wage recommendation of $7.50/hr," explains
Nickerson, "and we are looking to place participants in a career path."
Trying new techniques
The new program was developed in partnership with the YWCA of Hudson
County and in collaboration with Christ Hospital, Summit Bank, Fleet
Bank, Hudson County Social Services Agency, and Youth Consultation
Services. What differentiates the program from others is its willingness
to try new techniques. "We are prepared to pilot new methods of engaging
and successfully employing 'hard to serve' welfare recipients,
especially the populations with multiple barriers to employment, those
who are in families with intergenerational welfare dependency, and those
who have been on public assistance for more than two years," Nickerson
explains. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, the program is designed to
"build on neighborhood social support systems and existing training
programs and services and use collaborative agreements to make them
function more effectively."

The YWCA will provide the training. Each individual will be treated as a
consumer, approached with a belief that they have "sufficient assets and
strengths" needed for change and improvement. What the participant wants
to do will be an equally important factor in their training. Job coaches
will be assigned from day one to assist participants in mapping out a
placement plan. The operative theme for participants will be "this is
where I want to be -what do I need to get there?"

Coaches will also help participants link with the support services
needed to keep them working-childcare and transportation services, many
of which are provided through state and county agencies. Coaches will be
there for the participants when problems arise, even after the
participant finds employment. The general theory is that if participants
remain employed for at least 90 days, their chance of continuing
employment increases.

While the job coaches are preparing the participants, the job developers
will look for real jobs for each participant, matching job interests
with the individuals.

"Over time our pitches will get better, our support will get better, and
if they don't get better, we won't get paid," explains Nickerson. 
An umbrella of outreach
The welfare-to-work program is yet another rib in this non-profit
umbrella for the Episcopal parishes in Jersey City. JCECDC is a creation
of the Jersey City congregations and the Diocese of Newark. Formed in
1997, it is the successor to Jersey City Episcopal Housing, Inc., a
not-for-profit developer of low income housing since 1986. JCECDC still
sponsors 160 units of low-income housing, serving more than 500
residents in the downtown, Bergen, and Greenville sections of Jersey
City.

The board of directors includes representatives from the community, the
local Episcopal congregations, the Diocese of Newark, Christ Hospital,
and community leaders. Its existence allows the rectors and missioners
of the Jersey City Episcopal churches to concentrate on meeting the
needs of their congregations, while the CDC oversees their community
outreach programs. By July 1999 JCECDC, established with a two-year seed
grant, will face the challenge of being independent itself. "We are
building an organization capable of sustaining itself as well as
continuing to do the kind of work it was setting up to do."

Grace Kids, an after-school program started in 1997 by members of Grace
Van Vorst Episcopal Church, is now administered by JCECDC, in
partnership with Grace Van Vorst and the Jersey City Department of
Recreation. JCECDC also administers a program with the Department of
Recreation for the children at Church of the Incarnation -- Incarnation
Kids -- and in Greenville for the residents of the Mid City I & II
Housing Developments. The Mid City program is funded through a federal
Drug Elimination Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. "The CDC allows us to partner with local congregations to
assist them in offering community based programs that open the churches
seven days a week. This assistance includes the use of public funding as
appropriate," explains Nickerson.

In September 1998 the boards of JCECDC and Corpus Christi Ministries
Inc. (CCMI) agreed to a merger that will ensure the continued viability
of the CCMI program. Founded in 1989 by the late Rev. Bernard Healy,
CCMI has provided housing and services for HIV/AIDS residents. As
treatments improve, and persons with AIDS live longer, the scope of the
housing and services has changed. The focus has changed from dealing
with the inevitable death of residents to the prospect for employment
and, in some cases, relocation to independent housing on their own. In
October yet another phase of the ministry of Corpus Christi was unveiled
with the opening of the first residence for families living with
HIV/AIDS. According to Nickerson, JCECDC and CCMI have just received
another grant to open a fourth site for Corpus Christi. 

Nickerson is eager to talk about the prospects of the welfare-to-work
program, as well as the other projects administered by JCECDC. However
he maintains the stance that this is one of a group of community
organizations operating within the diocese that deserve attention and,
more importantly, can share their knowledge and experience with other
communities. 
--Janice Newman Teetsell is a member of The VOICE board and of St.
Andrew and Holy Communion, South Orange.