Return to the M.B. Herald Vol. 35, No. 8
Home Page
Many Winnipeg employers want to hire welfare recipients, but don't have the resources to provide academic upgrading and life skills training. Now three Mennonite organizations have joined forces to help Winnipeggers on social assistance and employers get together so people can make the transition from welfare to work.
The three--Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Manitoba, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) Winnipeg Chapter and the Trainex Centre, a division of the Winkler-based Eden Health Care Services--are working together in a government-funded pilot project called Manitoba Works, Opportunities for Employment. The program is designed to screen, select and train welfare recipients for placement into jobs with commercial organizations, says Garry Loewen, who directs MCC Manitoba's Employment Development program.
Ongoing employment counselling and support will also be provided.
MCC Manitoba will coordinate the two-year pilot project, which is designed to find jobs for about 100 people during its first year of operation and up to 250 people in subsequent years. If the program is successful in Winnipeg, it will expand to rural Manitoba.
The province has agreed to reimburse costs for each successful placement. A placement is considered successful when the employee has held a full-time job for six months. Employees will continue to receive social assistance until they have found a job.
"One advantage to the government is that it pays only for results," says Loewen. "By the time government pays us for a successful placement they have already saved six months of welfare payments."
The project is based on an American program, America Works, which is able to get 68 percent of their clients off welfare. Ninety percent of the clients in this program are still in their jobs a year later.
The need for this type of service was identified by people in the Mennonite business community who have a strong interest in improving economic opportunities for people on welfare as an expression of their Christian faith.
"It's a fabulous program . . . you can't ask a person to go cold turkey into the work force," says Tamara Fast, chair of MEDA's 200-member Winnipeg chapter.
Fast, sales manager of Willmar Windows, explains her company employs 800 people during peak season. Many applicants require basic academic upgrading and assistance with fundamental employment related issues, such as daycare and transportation needs. "We could lean on a service like this to provide us with qualified applicants," says Fast.
She is confident many of the 200 members in the Winnipeg MEDA chapter will provide job opportunities for people in this program. The commitment from the business sector is "our ace in the hole", says Jake Dyck, program director of Trainex Centre, adding he is confident the program will succeed in Winnipeg and expand to rural Manitoba.
The methodology used in the assessment process, training plans and employment supports has been developed by Trainex Centre, a training and job development facility in Winkler. "The methodology is critical" he says, adding 67 percent of Trainex clients are still employed after four years.
Dyck says the program gives Trainex Centre the opportunity to expand its services into Winnipeg. This is important because the centre is governed by Manitoba churches throughout Manitoba and many clients referred to Trainex Centre live in Winnipeg.
He is also excited about the program's potential to expand to rural Manitoba. "We want to be proactive in change, rather than be forced into it," he explains.
Loewen says MCC's involvement in addressing the employment needs of Winnipeggers is in keeping with MCC's mandate to work on behalf of those who have little economic power and are at the margins of society.
"We want to be in solidarity with people who are poor in foreign countries and we want to be in solidarity with people who are denied opportunity in our own country," he says.
Gladys Terichow, MCC
Return to the M.B. Herald Vol. 35, No. 8
Home Page