DATE: Sunday, June 1, 1997                  TAG: 9706010047

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   67 lines

MAYOR CLIMBS ABOARD CHURCHES' CAMPAIGN ON WELFARE REFORM

Mayor James W. Holley has taken a step back in his plan to pull together a conference for church leaders and instead has offered to support a fall summit that members of the new Jeremiah Project are planning.

The Jeremiah Project, a growing interdenominational coalition of ministers, first met in February and has been planning a citywide Prayer and Care Summit to help identify the issues and needs of people in Portsmouth.

The suggestion of merging the mayor's idea for a conference into the summit came out of a meeting Holley held at City Hall Thursday. The meeting included a cross-section of clergymen who had been invited to serve on a conference planning committee.

He also brought in three representatives of the Portsmouth Department of Social Services, who explained the impact welfare reform would have on the city's clients, beginning in October.

More than 3,000 Portsmouth families - or about 7,500 people - now receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, formerly known as Aid to Dependent Children, said Bertha Wright, director of the social services department.

At least 1,000 people in Portsmouth will be making the transition from welfare to work. Many of them are second-generation welfare recipients with minimal work experience. They have never had the experience of having to juggle jobs with day care and transportation problems.

Ministers at the meeting did a short brainstorming session and came up with support services churches could offer, ranging from counseling services to mentoring.

But several of about 20 religious leaders who attended the meeting already had begun to look at the same issues through the Jeremiah Project.

When the Rev. Vernon S. Lee Sr. of New Mount Vernon Baptist Church suggested that the mayor's idea for a church conference was a duplication of what the coalition was planning, Holley quickly offered to throw his support behind the summit.

At the beginning of the meeting Holley had assured ministers, ``We're not here to create another organization.''

What was necessary, he said, was finding ways to address the needs of the community.

``I can join in, and I can be a drummer boy for whatever you want to do,'' he said. ``The Jeremiah Project is right on target.''

Later, he emphasized that he and his staff would be available to offer support to the coalition.

Lee said the ministers at the meeting would bring information back to other church leaders at the June 24 meeting of the Jeremiah Project.

That meeting will be held at noon at Lee's church, 3555 Victory Blvd.

``What I got out of it, and what I would like to say is, we would not like to be political,'' Lee said. ``We're doing what we're doing on the spiritual realm.''

``We need to speak for people who maybe cannot speak for themselves,'' Lee said. ``I think the mayor's involvement will help us.''

The Rev. Matt Matthews of Simonsdale Presbyterian Church also found the meeting useful.

``I think what will come out of the meeting (is that) the city and the faith community do want to work together,'' he said.

But if there is a partnership with the city, Matthews said, churches need to have some autonomy.

``The city needs to do what the city does, and the church needs to do what the churches do,'' he said. ``But there can be good collaboration ... between the two.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Mayor James W. Holley originally planned his own conference of

church leaders, but has backed the Jeremiah Project.

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