Post by Okwes on Apr 2, 2007 19:15:32 GMT -5
Minn. Counties In Race To Cut Welfare Rolls
(AP) Minneapolis When it comes to reducing welfare rolls, 16 Minnesota counties have a specific goal: to work to get more black and American Indian families off state welfare this year.
Federal law requires that states get half of family-welfare recipients involved in jobs or job-related programs for at least 30 hours a week. About a third of Minnesota's welfare families currently meet that goal, but if the numbers don't improve by 2009, the state could lose $13.5 million of the $267 million it gets each year to help poor families.
In suburban counties, officials are seeing the goal is tied to race. Data show black and American Indian families are over-represented on welfare rolls and tend to remain on public assistance longer than people of other races.
"The goal that the state has given us is that African-Americans and Native Americans should be doing as well as everyone else," said Ruth Krueger, who directs Dakota County's Department of Employment and Economic Assistance.
"Our overarching goal is to get everyone off welfare," she said. "We don't want to find that there is one group that is being left behind on that."
The state's family-welfare program -- the Minnesota Family Investment Program -- is only for families with children.
Recipients, a majority of whom are single mothers, are granted benefits for no longer than five years.
In Dakota County, the number of recipients is growing faster than the population. Public assistance cases -- including food support, medical help and public welfare for families and singles -- grew by 69 percent from 2000 to 2005, while MFIP cases rose 25 percent, to 1,500.
During that time, the county's population grew about 6 percent, according to the U.S. census.
Blacks make up 3.9 percent of the Dakota County population, but account for 38 percent of the county's families on MFIP.
About a fourth of the county's black population lives in poverty.
American Indians make up less than half of 1 percent of the county's residents, but 3 percent of the county's MFIP recipients.
"We've been struggling with how fast our caseload is going up," Krueger said.
The state Human Services Department has been working for nearly two years to figure out why those disparities exist and to try to close the gap. Officials from 16 counties have joined the effort and are coming up with plans to solve the problem.
Krueger organized separate focus groups of black, American Indian and white welfare recipients in May and September. In October, she held a community forum with church leaders, teachers, government workers and employers.
She asks everyone: "How do we help low-income people become more successful in Dakota County, particularly minorities?" She's finding the answer is not clear-cut.
"There is not a simple, linear answer to that question," said Sam Grant, a community organizer with the Human Services Department.
"You talk to one group ... and they would say that it's because of the 'culture of poverty,' Grant said. "You talk to another group, and they say it's because of a long-term racial tax -- there's concrete discrimination that happens to African-Americans that doesn't happen to other groups.
"It's such a swamp, such a morass, that counties say, 'Well, we don't have any control over that, (and the state shouldn't) hold us accountable,"' Grant said.
Meanwhile, in Dakota and 15 other counties, black and American Indian families remained on MFIP longer than all other ethnic groups surveyed, according to a three-year study by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
Statewide, 71 percent of the general population was off family welfare or working at least 30 hours per week after three years, compared with 58 percent of blacks and 58 percent of American Indians.
That gap was especially evident for blacks in Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmsted, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties, the study showed.
Even members of recent immigrant groups, such as Hmong and Somalis, got off family assistance faster than blacks and American Indians -- and in some counties, whites.
In Dakota County, Krueger hopes to do her share by chipping away at distrust between black clients and their caseworkers.
She's training her employees on "motivation interviewing" with the hope they can encourage welfare recipients to see them as resources toward moving off welfare.
Olmsted County has gone a step further. The county has hosted "empowerment workshops" with Somali immigrants, where groups of participants discuss their hopes for the future and trade job-search tips.
The county is adapting the program for a black audience, and Washington County is interested in doing the same, Grant said.
(AP) Minneapolis When it comes to reducing welfare rolls, 16 Minnesota counties have a specific goal: to work to get more black and American Indian families off state welfare this year.
Federal law requires that states get half of family-welfare recipients involved in jobs or job-related programs for at least 30 hours a week. About a third of Minnesota's welfare families currently meet that goal, but if the numbers don't improve by 2009, the state could lose $13.5 million of the $267 million it gets each year to help poor families.
In suburban counties, officials are seeing the goal is tied to race. Data show black and American Indian families are over-represented on welfare rolls and tend to remain on public assistance longer than people of other races.
"The goal that the state has given us is that African-Americans and Native Americans should be doing as well as everyone else," said Ruth Krueger, who directs Dakota County's Department of Employment and Economic Assistance.
"Our overarching goal is to get everyone off welfare," she said. "We don't want to find that there is one group that is being left behind on that."
The state's family-welfare program -- the Minnesota Family Investment Program -- is only for families with children.
Recipients, a majority of whom are single mothers, are granted benefits for no longer than five years.
In Dakota County, the number of recipients is growing faster than the population. Public assistance cases -- including food support, medical help and public welfare for families and singles -- grew by 69 percent from 2000 to 2005, while MFIP cases rose 25 percent, to 1,500.
During that time, the county's population grew about 6 percent, according to the U.S. census.
Blacks make up 3.9 percent of the Dakota County population, but account for 38 percent of the county's families on MFIP.
About a fourth of the county's black population lives in poverty.
American Indians make up less than half of 1 percent of the county's residents, but 3 percent of the county's MFIP recipients.
"We've been struggling with how fast our caseload is going up," Krueger said.
The state Human Services Department has been working for nearly two years to figure out why those disparities exist and to try to close the gap. Officials from 16 counties have joined the effort and are coming up with plans to solve the problem.
Krueger organized separate focus groups of black, American Indian and white welfare recipients in May and September. In October, she held a community forum with church leaders, teachers, government workers and employers.
She asks everyone: "How do we help low-income people become more successful in Dakota County, particularly minorities?" She's finding the answer is not clear-cut.
"There is not a simple, linear answer to that question," said Sam Grant, a community organizer with the Human Services Department.
"You talk to one group ... and they would say that it's because of the 'culture of poverty,' Grant said. "You talk to another group, and they say it's because of a long-term racial tax -- there's concrete discrimination that happens to African-Americans that doesn't happen to other groups.
"It's such a swamp, such a morass, that counties say, 'Well, we don't have any control over that, (and the state shouldn't) hold us accountable,"' Grant said.
Meanwhile, in Dakota and 15 other counties, black and American Indian families remained on MFIP longer than all other ethnic groups surveyed, according to a three-year study by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
Statewide, 71 percent of the general population was off family welfare or working at least 30 hours per week after three years, compared with 58 percent of blacks and 58 percent of American Indians.
That gap was especially evident for blacks in Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmsted, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties, the study showed.
Even members of recent immigrant groups, such as Hmong and Somalis, got off family assistance faster than blacks and American Indians -- and in some counties, whites.
In Dakota County, Krueger hopes to do her share by chipping away at distrust between black clients and their caseworkers.
She's training her employees on "motivation interviewing" with the hope they can encourage welfare recipients to see them as resources toward moving off welfare.
Olmsted County has gone a step further. The county has hosted "empowerment workshops" with Somali immigrants, where groups of participants discuss their hopes for the future and trade job-search tips.
The county is adapting the program for a black audience, and Washington County is interested in doing the same, Grant said.