4
Tuesday, October 28,1997
Community leaders find transportation for welfare recipients
■ Statewide community
representatives met during
Hunt s Work First Forum.
BY MATT DEES
STAFF WRITER
Community leaders are taking the
highroad to help out the state’s welfare
recipients.
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Over 500 community leaders from
around the state met Tuesday for the
Work First Forum, which was spon
sored by Gov. Jim Hunt.
“We hope to get ideas from people
from across the state on the best way to
tackle the problems of getting people off
welfare and into jobs," said Hunt
spokeswoman Barbara Thompson.
Hunt conducted the forum because
many workers complained that inade
quate transportation made it hard for
STATE & NATIONAL
them to comply with Work First require
ments, which mandate that welfare
recipients find work within 12 weeks or
lose benefits.
Recently, the N.C. Department of
Transportation purchased 1,500 vans to
help with transportation around the
state, said David King, deputy secretary
for the Transit, Rail and Aviation divi
sion of the N.C. DOT.
The N.C. DOT also plans to put up
$1.75 million for Work First transporta
tion, said King.
The community leaden met to find
ways to fix the transportation problem
within local communities.
“The purpose of this gathering is to
get everyone who cares about trans
portation to talk about creative solutions
about getting people to work,” said
Leslie Boney, project director of Work
First for die N.C. Department of
Commerce.
King said it was the responsibility of
community leaden to abandon past
transportation policies and come up
with new ones.
“The success of this program is large
ly dependent on officials to get creative
and come up with new ideas,” he said.
“Business as usual will not solve the
problem.”
Lois Nilsen, spokeswoman for the
N.C. Department of Health and Human
Services, emphasized the importance of
volunteer groups to join in the search for
Ifjr latly (Tar
solutions.
The First Presbyterian Church of
Wilson has a program to transport Work
First participants to work.
The Wheels to Work program in
Winston-Salem also loans cars to
employed welfare recipients within their
city.
“It is extremely important to have
that extra help,” Nilsen said.
“People need someone for emotional
and practical support.”
i9
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FROM WIRE REPORTS