Executive Report

Project Chance: more than just a check?

THREE years from now, if all goes as planned, there should be 100,000 fewer Illinoisans on welfare and 100,000 more working. That is the goal of a new program announced December 12 by the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA).

Called "Project Chance," the program is an ambitious attempt to form a partnership with private sector businesses to provide job skills and employment for some of the state's one million welfare recipients. The project combines all current IDPA employment-related programs and will be managed by the newly created Office for Employment and Social Services (see "Names," page 34). The department will spend about $38 million this fiscal year on all its training and employment programs, according to project manager Randale Valenti. Those programs, now under the umbrella of Project Chance, include the General Assistance Jobs Program in Chicago, the statewide WIN (Work Incentive Program) demonstration project and the work-related activities in the Food Stamp program. While participation has been mandatory for the 160,000 recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children who have children over age six and for those General Assistance recipients who are not disabled, Project Chance will not only include these people but will make an effort to encourage the 120,000 mothers of children under six to voluntarily participate. Project Chance will also reach out to those on the fringes who may not be eligible for assistance but who need help finding employment. Transportation and day care services will be provided, Valenti said.

An additional $3 million has been set aside for some new job training programs under Project Chance. Contracts will go to both private companies and nonprofit entities who can guarantee jobs for the people they train, Valenti said. "There has been a change in philosophy about welfare," he explained. "It is a deadend street. Our ultimate goal is to assist people in getting on the economic ladder." Even though some jobs may pay only minimum wage, Valenti said there are distinctive advantages to taking an entry level job with a future, as opposed to being stuck on welfare.

Because education is often the key to employment, IDPA will be working with the State Board of Education to see that the 217,513 welfare recipients who lack a high school education get at least that much schooling. Then they can go on to the various Project Chance programs designed to help them get jobs. There will be incentives for private companies to hire welfare recipients, Valenti said. Not only will they be educated, but they can be trained to the specific needs of the company. IDPA will subsidize employers for their training programs, Valenti said.

IDPA already has agreements with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association to train participants to work in Chicago stores; it has initiated a pilot program with the state's nursing home industry to train recipients for positions in long-term care facilities and has set up a training and work experience program with the Chicago Housing Authority. The department received 160 responses to its recent call for contracts, Valenti said. The contracts were to have been awarded in March.

The apparent carrot of jobs also has a stick attached. Recipients who refuse to participate could lose their grants, Valenti said. The project, however, is "trying to build an environment to succeed, and hopefully the need to sanction [recipients] will decline," he added. The majority of cases where benefits are lost, he said, are those in which the recipient is already working and has not reported his or her new income.

The state hopes to save about $40 million a month in welfare costs by placing people in permanent employment. But a preliminary report of a national study of so-called workfare programs similar to Project Chance indicated that the payoff may not be immediate. The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) is currently looking at an Illinois project started in Cook County before Project Chance, as well as programs in 10 other states. A final report is not due until 1987, but a preliminary look at a project in Baltimore, which like Project Chance focuses on education and job training, showed some increase in employment for welfare recipients but no significant drop in welfare payments. Judy Gueron, principal investigator on the MRDC study, said that benefits under the Baltimore program will be apparent over the long run. In general, workfare programs can make a difference, Gueron said, but "the differences are likely to be modest. One should not expect miracles." Workfare, she said, is not a "quick fix" for poverty.

Nora Newman Jurgens

April 1986/Illinois Issues/33