wfn.org | NCC “Welfare Reform Survey” to be Released

[CAROL.FOUKE@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org   Web: www.ncccusa.org
Info/Interview Requests: NCC News, 212-870-2252 or 2227
On Site Wednesday-Friday: Carol Fouke, 301-961-2800
NCC02/13/01

Findings to be Released 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, 2001, National 4-H
Center, Chevy Chase, Md.
NCC’S NATIONAL SURVEY OF FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS EXPLORES
STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES OF WELFARE REFORM AS REAUTHORIZATION NEARS

WHAT: The National Council of Churches – the nation’s leading
ecumenical organization -- will release findings of its nationwide survey of
faith-based organizations on the impact of the 1996 “Welfare
Reform,” coming up for reauthorization in 2002.  Respondents included
social service providers and advocates from the NCC’s 36 mainline
Protestant and Orthodox member denominations and from state and local
ecumenical and interfaith programs.

WHEN/WHERE: News Briefing, 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, 2001, Minnesota
Room, National 4-H Center, 7100 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase, Md.

OCCASION: The Feb. 14-16 national “Consultation on the Reauthorization
of TANF and Related Programs” (i.e. the Temporary Assistance to Needy
Families (TANF) Program, the Food Stamp Program and the Child Care and
Development Block Grant).  More than 120 participants will recommend a
“platform” for the advocacy work of the National Council of
Churches, its member denominations and their 50 million adherents, in
collaboration with state and local religious and secular partners, as TANF
and related programs come up for reauthorization in 2002.

The consultation is one piece of the NCC’s broader, 10-year
“Poverty Mobilization,” launched in November 2000 and exploring
initiatives in such areas as health care, children, environment, education
and housing, all with the aim of identifying achievable goals for combating
poverty in the United States.

OTHER SESSIONS OF INTEREST: Plenaries from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday,
Feb. 15.  Details follow.

LOCALIZE THIS STORY!  Following are some Washington, D.C., faith-based
providers of social services who would welcome your reporters/crews anytime
this week.  Why not arrange to visit one or two sites before Thursday noon,
then use the quotes/footage to give a local, human face to your story on the
National Council of Churches’ nationwide survey?

Prince George’s County Community Ministries -- Jack Van den Hengel,
Director
311	68th Place, Seat Pleasant, MD 20743.  Call 301-499-2319 for an
appointment.

The primary focus of this interfaith organization, which has been in
existence since 1973, is to assist area congregations to respond to need. 
Prince Georges’s CCM has organized a structure of 33 congregational
clusters to which the county’s 800 congregations relate directly or
indirectly.

Interfaith Clothing Center -- Ms. Julie Maltzman, Director
751 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, MD 20851.  Call 301-424-3796 for an
appointment.

The Interfaith Clothing Center is a program of Community Ministry of
Montgomery County, which is supported by more than 100 congregations in the
area.  Ms. Maltzman, an experienced social-service provider who has worked
in this field for 12 years, notes that the number of clients using the free
clothing center has doubled in the past year and a half.  Some 100
volunteers help keep the center operating.

The center is open 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday,
closed on Friday.
Client hours on Wednesday are 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and are an
opportunity for disabled clients to use the center.  Regular client hours on
Thursday are 9:00 a.m. – 12 noon.

Rockville Community Ministries -- The Rev. Mansfield Kaseman, Director
114 West Montgomery Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850.  Call 301-424-6733 (church
office, try first) or 301-762-8682 (RCM office) for an appointment.

For more than 20 years, the Rev. Kaseman has worked in community ministries
in Rockville—one of the country’s most affluent areas but with
some 125,000 residents below the poverty line.  RCM’s typical client
is a single mother with children; increasingly the clients are working
families who cannot survive on their income.  The program includes three
homeless shelters, elder home-care, emergency assistance, and Latino
outreach.  RCM works closely with the mayor’s office and other local
government officials in what the Rev. Kaseman describes as a model for
private/public partnership.

DETAILS, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, PROGRAM**
National Council of Churches Consultation on Reauthorization of TANF and
Related Programs
National 4-H Center, Chevy Chase, Md.

9:00 a.m. -- Setting the Legislative Scene for 2001-2002
* TANF - Mark Greenberg, Center on Law and Social Policy
* Food Stamps - Ellen Vollinger, Food Research Action Council 
* Child Care - Helen Blank, Children’s Defense Fund
* Education and Training - Leslie Wolfe, President, Center on Women Policy
Studies
10:30 a.m. -- A Variety of Perspectives
* Capitol Hill - Kimberly Barnes O’Conner, Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions
* Field - Hannah Rosenthal, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
* Advocacy Community - Liz Accles, Welfare Made a Difference Campaign
11:30 a.m. – A National Evaluation of TANF
* Lynn Curtis, President, Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation
2:00 p.m. - State Case Studies
* California Council of Churches - Scott Anderson, Director
* Jubilee Program, North Carolina Council of Churches - Barbara Earls,
Director

** The consultation begins Wednesday 4 p.m. with worship and continues
through 4 p.m. Friday.  Apart from sessions listed here, consultation
participants will be in small groups and working plenaries.

-end-