BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- Butler County has been chosen for a pilot program that will assist single mothers who are trying to make the transition from welfare to work.
Under a contract with Butler County, the Grail Women's Task Force, which is part of Grailville in Loveland, will provide mentoring services to 100 single mothers in Ohio Work First, the state's welfare-to-work program.
The Grail Women's Task Force, which focuses on social justice issues, will operate the year-long program from July 1 to June 30, 1999, at sites in Hamilton, Middletown and Oxford.
Trained mentors, who will be chosen from faith-based and community organizations, will educate and counsel women about how to overcome the many barriers to self-sufficiency.
The Ohio Department of Human Services and the Butler County Human Services Department will fund the $82,000 program.
"This is a real strong partnership focused on helping our participants find and retain jobs," said Fran Frazier, chief of the Ohio Department of Human Services' Bureau of Work Force Initiatives.
Ohio officials have publicly praised Butler County's welfare reform plan as one of the most advanced in the state.
Butler County's selection as the site of this new program is further proof of the high esteem state officials have for the county's welfare reform plan, Commissioner Courtney Combs said. "It's another show of confidence by the state in the county's ability to make a program work," he said.
In Ohio, 86 percent of those receiving cash assistance in the welfare program are women, Ms. Frazier said.
"So the Grail Women's Task Force thought this would be a great way to help them," she said. Grailville is a center of the International Grail Women's Movement.
The mentoring will encompass countless issues related to work, from guidance on wearing proper clothes to work and selecting good child-care programs to assistance in learning job skills and finding transportation to their jobs, she said.
At least three focus groups involving participants in this program will be organized to identify the chief obstacles to self-sufficiency, Ms. Frazier said.
In addition, 100 women in leadership roles throughout the state will be asked to study this pilot mentoring program and to try to start similar programs in their communities, she said.
Mr. Combs said one of the program's strengths is that it not only helps women before they find jobs, but it follows up on them after they have jobs. "If they have problems after starting to work, the program will help them so they can continue to work and don't have to go back on welfare," Mr. Combs said.
