"E&T" up close; a look at food stamp employment & training projects in several areas - Oklahoma, Las Vegas, Delaware, San Diego

Food and Nutrition, Summer, 1988 by Wini Scheffler

The state staff and communitybased agency personnel know that self-esteem plays a key role in making someone employable. To motivate participants and to build their selfesteem, the staff highlight their strengths.

"You can provide all the information you can," says Varella. "You can go over resumes and tell a person how to dress. But if he doesn't feel good about himself, then he'll blow the interview."

In one exercise designed to rebuild confidence, program participants are asked to look closely at the hard times they have survived and to imagine what they could do in good times.

Once participants' self-esteem has improved, case managers talk to them about goals. They help them understand that progress sometimes means taking one step at a time.

"We can't let the participants experience failure," says Varella"If we do, we'll lose them. When a participant sets up a goal, for example, to increase his English level by two grades and he only moves one grade, we want him to understand there are different levels of improvement. We constantly work with participants until they feel good about themselves."

In addition to building confidence the Delaware program also stresses taking responsibility for one's own life. Looking back at her experience with public aid, Varella says welfare didn't instill a sense of responsibility. That came, she says, from people who encouraged her to accept responsibility.

Similarly, participants in "The First Step" have to meet certain obligations. For example, they are required to attend classes, and there are penalties if they do not. After several unexcused absences from class, a participant can be ineligible for food stamp benefits for 2 months.

"I'm not a very conservative person," says Varella, "but I do believe that if you're providing the support an services people need to develop their potential, then they have a responsibility to go forth with that."

Initial resistance usually doesn't last

As with anything else, when people are required to do something, they tend initially to be a little resentful. The employment and training participants are no exception to the rule, but the case managers and staff at the community centers do their best to ease the situation.

"Once the clients come in and see the staff, they start to feel good about being involved in the program," Varella says. "The staff really enjoy working with people. It's not just a job to them. It's in their hearts."

Program participants learn quickly that attending class has its merits because it's leading them to some new opportunities.

"We are the first step, and that's the hardest step to take," Varella says. "We tell the clients that once they take that step, the sky's the limit."

One participant, after taking the classes last spring, said, "I don't like to be told that I have to do something but after being in the program, I realized my teacher was showing me a direction I wanted to find."

Another young woman, who dropped out of school in the tenth grade, said the program was helping her bring up her math level. "I didn't want to come, but I'm happy I did," she said.