BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON - You have not worked outside your apartment in five years. Your life is about caring for your children and juggling.
And now, suddenly, you must step outside your world and find a job.
The finding part isn't so difficult in Northern Kentucky these days. But keeping jobs is another matter. Welfare reform assumes people will do so - even though longevity in one position is tough enough for those who have never received a government check.
Without much guidance from the reformers, social service agencies are devising their own ways to help people stay employed. One result: Job START, a program designed and run by Welcome House for the Covington Housing Authority. The START stands for Success Through Assessment, Readiness, Training and Teamwork.
Once a week for 12 weeks, a handful of women meets in the recreation hall at the City Heights housing complex. They talk about their struggles to get enough sleep, their approaches to resolving conflicts, their quests for quality child care, their doubts and fears about working.
Typical advice from teacher Helen Waddell, a temporary employee of Welcome House: "Men wear flat shoes. They just like to look at women in 3-inch heels, which is ridiculous.
"Just remember, you didn't go (to work) to catch a man. You went there to get a paycheck."
The students' circumstances are varied. Some already have jobs. Others are still looking - or working up the courage to do so. Cardelia Robbins, 48, enjoys the class but wonders how she would fare outside the public housing complex. First she must learn which bus routes go where, she says.
She took custody of three grandchildren because their mother was battling drug addiction. Now Ms. Robbins, who hasn't worked outside the home in years, is bracing for a likely reduction in her welfare check.
"Even if they cut me off, hopefully they won't cut the kids off, because they're not my kids," she says. "I didn't want them to go to a (foster) home somewhere."
Another woman in the class recently got a job in a hospital cafeteria. Her boss has been flexible, she says, adjusting the hours of her shift to accommodate child care.
She looks tired as Ms. Waddell talks, and none of the cheerful banter makes her smile. Later in the evening, though, she receives an award for perfect attendance.
Heidi Becker, the Welcome House social worker overseeing Job START, says the agency is still adjusting its format based on feedback from the students. So far, one person has graduated; she recently picked up a $100 check - a reward for three months of steady employment.
Each woman in Job START is assigned a Welcome House case manager, who helps her find work and keeps in touch as she gets settled. Completing the 12-week course earns the women a $50 incentive. Three months of work nets them the $100.
On a recent evening, some of the students showed up in new work outfits selected from a collection of donated clothes. Ms. Waddell led a discussion about appearance, covering everything from fingernails to wrinkles.
Illustrating a point about furrowed brows, she scrunched up her own forehead and mimics a mother responding to a child: "What honey? What honey?"
That's how wrinkles appear between the eyes, she says.
Her students laughed.
"I have that, too!" one of them said.
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