ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
After three decades of independently run programs to move the poor into self-sufficiency, Total Action Against Poverty is planning to roll its education and job-training efforts into a single project called "This Valley Works."
It will consolidate 10 programs into a more concentrated effort to help school dropouts, welfare clients, ex-prisoners and recovering substance abusers overcome barriers to employment.
"This will strengthen TAP's welfare-to-work, prison-to-work, street-corner-to-work efforts," said Ted Edlich, TAP's president and chief executive officer. "It's common knowledge that the way out of poverty is through training and job skills and jobs."
The project has been patterned after Cleveland Works, a job-training program in Ohio that has been touted as having helped 7,000 people get off welfare since 1987. President Clinton has cited it as a national model.
"We want to capitalize on some of the excellent features of the Cleveland Works project," Edlich said. "They have a close identification with their employers. And they are aggressive in looking at those entry-level positions that have the most promise and in developing training programs [to ensure] that people are able to access those positions."
The consolidation was recommended by a 16-member education commission that spent six months studying the agency's existing education and training programs. The commission recommended This Valley Works to the TAP Board of Directors last month.
That recommendation included housing the 10 programs - plus on-site day care and at least two Head Start classrooms - under one roof at a Family Education and Training Center. At present, the programs operate in several locations. TAP is looking for a place that is both big enough and accessible to clients.
In 30 years, TAP programs have helped an estimated 20,000 people get employment training, education and jobs, Edlich said.
A board of commissioners - to be appointed to oversee the project - will consider the direction of those programs under This Valley Works, Edlich said.
A major aim is to bring corporate leaders and employers into project planning. The project's success will depend a lot on business input, Edlich said.
"One of the concerns of welfare reform is that if jobs are dead-end and people cannot rise above minimum wage, after two years people can be in a difficult situation," he said, referring to Virginia's new welfare plan, which cuts off Aid To Families with Dependent Children benefits after two years.
"We want to identify those jobs that have some promise and can help people become self-sufficient."
This Valley Works could benefit from a proposed increase in federal support for the nation's 900 community action agencies. The House of Representatives is considering a $100 million increase in Community Service Block Grant funding for 1997. It is a core source of funding for community action agencies.
Aides to Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke said the measure was on the House floor late Thursday night and was expected to pass. Assuming it does, they said, the measure would face a Senate vote this summer or fall.
For TAP, Edlich said, any such increase could mean an additional $100,000 to support This Valley Works.
The House, if it votes to increase Community Service Block Grant funding, would send a message "that in the day of federal devolution, that community action is not going to be abandoned," Edlich said.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Education and job-training. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB