OED Awards $8.5 Million in Federal Welfare-to-Work Grants to Eight Local Partners

BALTIMORE – Baltimore City’s Office of Employment Development (OED) has awarded eight (8) new welfare-to-work contracts to help residents, who have serious barriers to employment, find work and develop careers. The new subcontractors include: Baltimore Reads, Maryland Center for Arts & Technology, Payne Memorial AME Church, Sylvan Learning Center, Alliance, Johns Hopkins Hospital, America Works of Maryland and the People’s Alternative Services System. OED will also continue its relationships with Baltimore Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake and the Genesis Group.

In 1998 and 1999, the Office of Employment Development secured $22 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to help welfare recipients and their families (includes non-custodial parents of children receiving public assistance) move from lives of public dependence to economic independence. Baltimore’s model, called WorkMatters, is an aggressive subsidized employment strategy that includes drug counseling and substance abuse treatment, employment barrier removal, skills assessment and enhancement, career and life skills training, and formal job readiness instruction. To date, approximately 700 citizens have registered for services.

Most individuals who enroll in WorkMatters begin by working in subsidized jobs. While learning job skills required by area employers, obtaining education credentials, and developing personal management skills, all WorkMatters employees are prepared for full-time jobs in growth areas of the economy. Participants also receive post-employment services for up to one-year after full-time job placement.

Collectively, the new WorkMatters contractors will:

• Identify and enroll at least 1,185 eligible residents in by February 2001
• Place each WorkMatters customer in a job with a career path
• Provide jobs that pay at least $7.00 per hour and provide health care benefits within six (6) months after employment
• Provide post employment services such as remedial education, GED preparation, and self-directed skills training
• Provide customers with quality based, reliable, support services in child care, family intervention, drug counseling, and transportation to distance jobs.

WorkMatters is coordinated by the Office of Employment Development and the Baltimore City Workforce Investment Board, in partnership with the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, the Baltimore City Child Support Enforcement Bureau, and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.

For additional information about WorkMatters and other workforce development strategies in Baltimore City, please contact Gail Woods Waller on (410) 396-9928 or visit our Web site at www.oedworks.com.