Walking Rocky Road Off Welfare Little-Known Nonprofit Agency Helps Welfare Clients Find And Keep Decent-Paying Jobs

Roxanne Kassner bought dignity and a new dress with her first paycheck in five years.

She smiles when she talks about the wardrobe bought for her job as a billing clerk at Rockwood Clinic. The frustration of being a welfare mom raising four girls and one grandchild alone, in a cramped northeast Spokane apartment, has faded.

“It’s tough doing this all on my own,” said Kassner, 41. “But I know the kids look up to me. There is dignity now.”

Kassner could be an advertisement for the state’s new welfare system that hopes to move tens of thousands of Washingtonians off the public dole and onto payrolls.

She had help from Single Parent Outreach Connection, a little-known nonprofit agency in Hillyard.

After intensive preparation and placement in work internships, clients like Kassner have found and kept decent-paying jobs.

“If the state is looking to come up with programs to get people immediately off welfare, they should look at what SPOC is doing,” said Rep. Jeff Gombosky, D-Spokane, a member of the agency’s board of directors.

A social worker and college professor started the program in 1991. When Brusan Wells became director in January 1996, the job-placement efforts intensified. Now, thousands of single parents call each year, looking for help.

The program works thoroughly with about 40 a year, and boasts a 70 percent success rate.

SPOC succeeds because it recognizes the road from welfare to work isn’t smooth, said Wells.

Too distracted by an electricity shut-off notice to find work? SPOC tells clients how to get emergency money. Troubled by a deadbeat ex-spouse? Talk to our counselor, they tell clients.

“We believe in helping clients help themselves,” said Wells. “We look at all the issues and encourage them with solutions.”

The office is open to any needy single parent in Spokane County. Nine out of 10 are women. Almost all are on welfare, referred by the state Department of Social and Health Services or the Employment Security office.

Each parent goes through 40 hours of interview preparation. They get tips on building self-confidence, dressing appropriately, writing an effective resume and cover letter - even how to engage in office chitchat.

“Until I went (to SPOC), I felt like throwing my hands in the air and saying, ‘Oh well, those years of school were futile,”’ said Kassner, who earned an associate of arts degree from a Spokane Community College while on welfare.

“(Employers) assume because you went to college, you know how to do a resume.”

Some parents are then placed in unpaid internships to polish resumes dusty from years of neglect.

Those internships often lead to work, as one did for Jeff Carrol. The 49-year-old Indiana native moved to Spokane five years ago during his divorce, hoping to find a job in broadcasting.

Carrol’s two young sons, Jahreal and Fire, moved in three years ago. Unable to care for them and hold down a job, Carrol became a rare single welfare dad.

“I put a lot of money into the welfare system while I was working,” said Carrol. “These kids are a blessing and my top priority.”

He dropped into SPOC’s office in the Northeast Community Center on North Cook, looking for a single-father support group. He found Wells and her program.

After an unpaid internship as a construction supervisor at Habitat for Humanity, he was hired last year. His salary is $16,500 a year, about $35 more than he received while on welfare. His kids still qualify for free school lunches.

But helping welfare recipients find work is good business for the state. Each welfare recipient costs the public about $20,000 a year in benefits and administrative time.

In contrast, DSHS pays SPOC an average of $4,160 a year for each welfare recipient they help. The bulk of the program’s $120,000 budget comes from private donations.

In the midst of welfare reform, the state contract is in jeopardy. The state is likely to stop farming out job-readiness services, cutting SPOC’s contract and others like it in half, said Jason Luoto, a DSHS jobs coordinator.

Meanwhile, SPOC’s board of directors is looking for a new director. Wells is leaving to head the Spokane Lilac Festival.

The agency’s future is cloudy, but for graduates like Henrietta Pew, the future is clear.

Pew, who has a master’s degree in library science from the University of Idaho, quit an accounting job after contracting a neurological disorder.

She hoped to return to library work but found technology had lapped her. SPOC arranged for several unpaid internships while she was on welfare.

She recently got a job at downtown’s Cooperative Academic Library, run by Washington State University and Eastern Washington University. She loves her job.

“Being on welfare is demeaning,” said Pew, 47. “It’s very hard to find a job. I have a great deal of better feeling for myself now.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo