White House Hires Mom Off Welfare Clinton To Hail Firms Taking Challenge To Help Reduce Aid

Laura Askew got the call many on welfare wait for: She got the job. And not just any job, this one was at the White House.

“I was just overwhelmed,” said the 29-year-old woman now working as a mail clerk in the Executive Office of the President. “I called my sister. I was just hollering on the phone.”

Today, President Clinton travels to St. Louis to celebrate other companies that have picked up his challenge to move people from welfare to work. But even as private firms are pushed to do more, an advisory group is cautioning companies to set achievable goals.

Companies “should realistically assess” their ability to support and motivate people leaving welfare, said the guide developed by the Welfare to Work Partnership.

The partnership, formed to prod the private sector, is about as boosterish as they come. But in its first how-to guide, the rhetoric gives way to tough reality.

More than 750 companies have joined the partnership, each promising to hire at least one welfare recipient. But a year after Clinton signed the welfare law, they have no totals.

And an Associated Press survey in May of the nation’s largest firms showed just a handful had welfare-to-work programs in place.

If that doesn’t change by next May, the effort is in serious trouble, admits Eli Segal, a longtime Clinton supporter who heads the partnership.

The clock is ticking: With the economy enjoying its lowest unemployment in nearly a quarter-century, now is the best time to persuade businesses to hire someone off public assistance, Segal says.

“There’s a real sense we’ve got to get this done quickly,” Segal said.

Many companies - including some of the 250 who will be honored by Clinton - have promised to hire someone off welfare, but have no idea how to do it and end up frustrated.

Ada Possey, acting director of the Office of Administration, heads the White House effort.

“I have always had an aversion to people being stereotyped,” Possey said, explaining her interest in the program, which has hired six welfare recipients to work in the president’s executive office complex. The White House isn’t releasing their salaries, but Possey said they are in the $18,000-$20,000-a-year range.

Askew has turned into an outstanding employee, Possey said.

A single mom with a nearly 2-year-old son, Askew moved to the Virginia suburbs of Washington after being laid off for the fifth time in eight years from a plant in Raleigh, N.C.

She came to live with her sister but couldn’t find a job and soon used up her $300 nest egg. For the first time in her life, she signed up for welfare.

That was nearly a year ago, and as she was completing an office skills class last May, she still couldn’t find a job.

A counselor mentioned the White House job.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: GUIDE TO WELFARE HIRES Do an honest evaluation to determine how many people you can hire and what sort of support services are needed. Don’t feel compelled to set up your own training program. Consider an intermediary that helps people move from welfare into jobs. Realize not all recipients are unruly drug addicts; some are virtually ready to work, while others need more help. Find a champion in the company to boost the effort and make it work.