WORC reaches out with jobs and training - Washington Pennsylvania Outreach Retraining Center

Food and Nutrition, Summer, 1988 by Linda Feldman

Lou Gifford hadn't worked since 1972. She was on AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and food stamps. She had worked in a sewing factory and a state hospital for the mentally retarded before she married. Now divorced, she is the mother of a 10-year-old daughter.

"I was desperate," Gifford says. "I couldn't see living on food stamps for the rest of my life. I couldn't see being accountable to others forever."

Gifford saw a poster for the Washington (Pennsylvania) Outreach Retraining Center (WORC) when she was in a welfare office. Seeing that poster, and acting on it, has changed her life.

Gifford called WORC and the center's director, Joyce Blackburn, took her under her wing. Like all students who enroll in WORC's workshops, Gifford wanted to do something with her life but didn't know how to break the vicious cycle she was caught in.

Gifford is now a drafting student at Washington Institute of Technology. She works part-time for civil engineers, looks forward to getting an associate's degree in January 1989 and working full-time in the drafting Weld.

Finding paths out of welfare

WORC's goal is to help homemakers, like Lou Gifford, join the workforce. An economic development program started in 1984 by Pennsylvania's California University, WORC provides practical help in a variety of ways.

In addition to what are called "Employability Workshops," the center offers financial help with training programs and continuing education. WORC staff act as a support network as students go through training programs and beyond. They also offer occasional workshops in math skills, home-based businesses, and job search.

According to Blackburn, WORC's students are single parents and displaced homemakers. Displaced homemakers, she explains, are people who are widowed, divorced, or have a disabled spouse. Most have no job or training experience. Although geared toward women, a few men who are single parents have taken advantage of the program.

"We try to get people out of the welfare system," says Blackburn. "Welfare agencies refer people to us." Although statistics are incomplete, at least 29 percent of the students in 1987 were on food stamps. Blackburn says that at one point 9 of 11 students then attending a workshop had been on food stamps at some time. Some participants are WIC mothers.

Services provided free to participants

WORC tries to help students in as many ways as possible. There are no fees-workshops and everything attached are free. The center also helps with some of the personal costs associated with the training.

For example, WORC provides for child care while mothers attend workshops. The majority of students have school-age children, but for those with preschoolers, Blackburn finds licensed day care that takes the children for 5 weeks.

WORC also helps with some transportation costs. "Transportation can be a real problem," says Blackburn. Washington is the county seat, but only has a population of 23,000 people. It is a mining area, basically rural and very depressed. There is public transportation only within the center city.

WORC's funding allows them to pay for public transportation. "We have a couple of women who walk 1 -1 /2 miles and more to get a bus to come here," says Blackburn.

The women's determination to get to the center is characteristic of the commitment of WORC participants. It's also reflected in the center's success rate, which Blackburn feels is high.

In 1987, WORC had 89 people in its workshops. Some 29 of them are now employed and 25 are in training programs. The others, Blackburn says, are still looking, have decided they aren't ready yet, or want to start training when their children are older.

Workshops run for 5 weeks

WORC's employability skills workshops have 10 or so students in each and run for 5 weeks. In all, students get 120 hours of vocational guidance, ranging from how to assess job skills and begin a job search to goal setting, clarifying values, and managing stress.

A large part of what WORC does is build self-confidence and self-esteem. Blackburn says her students have trouble finding out what they want to do because they have never worked outside the home. "Many," she says, "have low self-esteem and feel like failures."

Lou Gifford gained much from taking with other single parents at the workshops. "I got insights into problems I was having at home," she says. Participating in WORC activities also gave her insights into the working world. "It gave me the opportunity to find out about different kinds of occupations and who was hiring in these areas," she says.

As part of the workshops, Blackburn enlists the help of professionals, who explain opportunities in their various fields. Some come from government agencies, others from the private sector.

Gifford remembers the tour she too of Washington Institute of Technology. "The drafting department fascinated me," she recalls. "It was quiet, and they worked at their own pace. That's when I decided what I wanted to do. It's nice to know what you want to do with your life."