JobsNow not workfare

Scientifically it has been proven that people who are out of the workforce for more than 12 months have a harder time bouncing back and getting off the welfare role.

Social Assistance recipients are not statistics - they are real people who want to work and it's time our welfare programs worked too. That is the message Nipissing MPP, Monique Smith, delivered during a media conference at the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board (DNSSAB) room this afternoon.

Smith announced to board members and staff of DNSSAB that Nipissing has been selected as one of 6 sites in Ontario to pilot the new innovative JobsNow program that will see people move from working for welfare to working for a living.

“Our plan will get thousands of people across the province into the workforce,” Smith told her audience.

Smith and the McGuinty government feel that the present program in place has just not been successful to date.

“Workfare hasn’t worked, and what we have seen is that while there has been an increase in the number of jobs in the province there remains a stable number of people on welfare.”

“What we want to see is the number of people on welfare reduced and those people finding good quality longer term jobs.”

The program is designed to be a streamlined individualized process that will assess the needs of the client and establish what suites them and than match the person with an appropriate job.

“We will also have all the individual supports to keep them in that job for 12 to 18 months. So if a crisis arises they can be assisted through that crisis and they are able to stay in that job. It also provides them with other work related supports to get them into that first job that weren’t available through workfare. Workfare was a 6 month program this is an 18 month program.”

One of the requirements for individuals to participate in the program is that they have been on welfare for 12 months.

“They will be streamed out of the regular pool of welfare recipients and put into the special program. The special program will provide them with support over an 18 month period to match them with an appropriate job and then to assist them to stay in that job,” said Smith.

George Maroosis, Chair of the Nipissing District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board is pleased to see the changes being made.

“I think the government has stepped up to the plate to supply extra resources to help serve difficult people and with these new resources, I believe that we can have some successes and place these people in employment in the long term.”