Saturday, July 22, 2000
Children hurt by welfare cuts
For several hundred Hamilton County children, welfare reform isn't theory, public policy or politics. It's far simpler. It just means Mom is gone more, tired more, worried more.
Come October, 1,219 local families will be among the first in the state to see their cash assistance run out.
Perhaps one day this move will indeed bring about the changes its proponents have promised. It may break the cycle of de
pendency into which millions of children are born. It may give them job skills and the pride of a paycheck.
For now it is just making their lives very hard.
We who simply observe the process must suspend judgment about the children's parents and shift our focus off taxpayer savings long enough to acknowledge its impact — often cataclysmic — on the children.
Life is difficult enough for them already, says Merceda Mass, a social worker with Central Clinic's Lifekeys program, which helps families and children affected by welfare changes. “Many of them have already experienced many family moves and feel unstable,” she says. “Many have grieved over deaths. They've seen shootings, drug overdoses, AIDS, the effects of poor health care and nutrition.”
Many know what it is to go hungry. Some have not had a day of adequate adult attention in their lives. They're growing up scared. Those and other factors have led to struggles with school work and behavior.
And now life is about to get rougher.
Mary Delaney, team leader for Lifekeys, works closely with 40 local families moving through welfare changes. She helps secure and retain employment for the parents, and housing, medical and mental health services for the family.
This week, one client — a mother of seven — simultaneously faced eviction from her home and the start of a new job. Another mother of six — all under the age of 9 — lives in housing so dangerous the whole family sleeps together every night. Each morning, the woman leaves to go to an entry-level job.
Everything gets more complicated when school begins and cash assistance ends in the fall.
When behavior or health problems crop up, schools call Mom. Now Mom has to ask to leave early, hope her boss will understand, and sometimes hop a series of buses to get to her child. Now, whether or not her job skills are adequate, whether she's exhausted or distracted, she must keep her job or face dire circumstances very quickly. As usual, her children abide by her fate.
In the fall, the Lifekeys program will place social workers in four Cincinnati Public elementary schools to work with children affected by welfare changes. They will act as coaches and advocates, keeping kids in the classroom and parents at their job. They'll also work on the health, housing and medical issues that lie at the heart of school problems.
“We expect to see more problems with concentration from kids not getting appropriate meals or sleep at home,” Ms. Delaney says. “It's hard to expect them to go through this transition and perform well at school and make homework a priority.
“What people who make these laws don't understand,” she says with resigned understanding, “is that these children have been in crisis all along — sometimes five or six ways at a time.”
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