Moving beyond the traditional job placement role

American Rehabilitation,  Spring, 1998  by Mary Zubek,  Andrea Knudsen

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Easter Seals job placement programs have been, and continue to be, a critical focus of Easter Seals' vocational services. Today, Easter Seals successfully provides traditional job placement services for persons with disabilities--from job readiness training to supported and competitive employment opportunities--through 87 Easter Seals affiliates providing services in 167 locations in 37 states. The desired outcome is to provide all individuals with opportunities for equality, dignity, and independence by becoming active, involved members of their communities. To this end, Easter Seal affiliates have placed more than 3,500 people with disabilities in employment opportunities this past year. Recognizing the strength in Easter Seals' job placement programs, it appeared to be an opportunity for Easter Seals to expand services to the population of welfare recipients whose needs are similar to those of persons with disabilities.

Special Needs/Welfare

Composition of Welfare Recipients. The welfare caseload is as diverse as the nation itself: College educated, recently divorced mothers are in the system, along with young, single parents without high school diplomas, as well as grown men with chronic, disabling ailments. The self-confident and energetic are accounted for, as are those troubled by domestic violence, healthy mothers with sick children, addicts, and ex-convicts. To a large extent, the success or failure of welfare reform will hinge on the acknowledgment of these differences (John Harwood, The Wall Street Journal, 1997). The dissolution of today's welfare system has spawned the beginning of a new industry, namely agencies that help welfare recipients transition into the workplace (Bennett, 1997). Easter Seals is one of the agencies helping people return to work.

Meeting Welfare Recipients' Needs

Individuals on welfare have been apportioned into groups identified by state offices responsible for welfare payments through an evaluation and assessment process. Group assignments have been determined by the first phase of each person's efforts to return to work and reduce his or her dependency on welfare.

Don Thomas, top welfare administrator in Hamilton County, Ohio, said he feels that approximately 20 percent of this population will not have trouble reentering the job market (Wall Street Journal, 1997). These individuals need relatively little encouragement to enter the labor market and little coaching once they are employed. According to caseworkers, people in this category typically have high school diplomas, recent work experience, good health, and strong motivation.

The second group will need more attention. These individuals lack self-esteem and education and may suffer from poor health. This group represents about 60 percent of welfare recipients and needs a firmer push to start the transition to employment.

The remainder, approximately 20 percent, face immense obstacles. These people often have limited education and difficulty yielding to authority. Many have histories of mental illness, addiction, or criminal activity that make potential employers wary (John Harwood, Wall Street Journal). Easter Seals has also determined through initial assessments that many individuals on welfare have a learning disability and have limited literacy skills.

These categories only capture a piece of the total picture; each case folder contains an individual story of both hardship and hope.

Easter Seals' Interest

As a part of Easter Seals' traditional role, providing integrated opportunities to persons with disabilities has been a primary goal. Welfare reform has now presented the organization with an ideal opportunity to extend placement services. The results will be twofold: the components of job placement services, recognized for their success working with persons with disabilities, will enhance the sensitivity and awareness of individuals without disabilities while providing the benefits of the programs that have served Easter Seal clients for more than 75 years. Easter Seals is currently working to assist individuals on welfare as they struggle with personal circumstances that have kept them on welfare. The target of many focused training programs will be to highlight personal strengths and abilities, rather than to dwell on limitations.

Recognizing similarities in the needs of the welfare population and persons with disabilities, Easter Seals decided to build upon its job placement program (see Figure 1, The Transition Process) to tailor services to individuals transitioning from welfare. The organization then considered program content, any necessary changes, and the ancillary services that would be needed to ensure positive placement outcomes.

[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

According to Goldstein and Kanfer (1981), reluctance to change is one of the biggest challenges facing this population. Change can elicit fear, confusion, anger, and resistance. Many individuals remain unable to change their view of themselves or others and struggle to overcome self-defeating patterns of behavior, even though solutions and opportunities for growth are at an arm's length. Others meet their world in rigid, fearful, or aggressive ways, finding little happiness or satisfaction, yet unable to break the vicious circles they seem to engender.