Besides driving the taxi, I drive a full-size van for the county's work-fare program.
Most of my passengers are in one sort of job training or another. The women are generally young mothers with small children, most of whom are taking classes and the local vocational school run by the county, training for careers as nursing or medical assistants. Some are training in the county offices as administrative assistants or data processors. There are classes they take that teach them what I'd consider basic work skills- like knowig how to dress and act in an interview, or how to properly answer a phone in a business situation.
There are also a smaller percentage of guys on the van. Most are doing their workfare at the county landfill, picking up and sorting trash and recyclables. Some are helping at at the county motor pool and some are working in the kitchen at the county's luncheonette at the occupational therapy center.
Mostly it's low-level, menial work, but these are the people who have virtually no job skills who would otherwise be sitting home and collection welfare checks. At least, with this program, the county gets some cheap labor and the people get to build some experience for when they go out into the real world to apply for jobs.
This all being said, yes, there are some folks in this program who are only doing it because they're required to so they can get their welfare checks. But the vast majority ARE doing it to hopefully better their situations. To work their way off of the public dole. Which to me, as one of the taxpaying public, is all I can ask.
So I'll give you two sample stories from the back of the van....
Ricky is a native southern Californian, about 20 years old. He's no genius- far from it in fact. I doubt his IQ is higher than 100. According to him, he got involved in some gang stuff in Long Beach and after being shot in the leg, the police recommended to him that he leave the state. That's the extent of the details, except to say that his parents were separated and he is now living with his grandfather in a very nice house bordering on some stables in the local horse country. Ricky is supposed to be training in the culinary arts by mopping up and bussing tables at the Occupation Therapy Center luncheonette. (We call it the Zombie Café). From what Ricky tells, he works hard and is sure to get a job soon in a restaurant. From the people in the van who know and see him regularly, he does the bare minimum to keep the job so he doesn't get "sanctioned" - having deductions taken from his welfare check. Ricky misses days without calling in. He misses appointments with his case worker. And he hits on every woman who gets in the van, no matter how old, how many kids, her mood or what she looks like. The basic shotgun approach. So far, I have yet to see him hit hit a "target."
So a few weeks ago, Ricky's eligibility for daily van service was running over-budget and his program was changed. It'd been decided that a year of ET (Employment Training) was enough, and that he should be going out for the next few weeks to search for employment. He would be off the van for a few weeks.
He'd had a meeting with his case worker one day and this is the conversation I heard between him and Annie in the back of the van;
Annie: So what'd your See-Dub (Case Worker) say?
Ricky: She gave me paperwork and told me to come back in 3 weeks.
A: What's the paperwork?
R: I dunno.
A: What do you mean you don't know?
R: I think I'm s'posta fill it out when I go look for jobs.
{In fact, Ricky is almost correct. He is "sposta" have the forms filled out and signed by anyone he goes to interview with for a job as proof that he's out there looking}
A: Are you gonna do it?
R: Fuck no. I ain't getting' no job!
A: They're gonna sanction you if you don't!
R: I'll worry about that then and I'll go meet with the See Dub to straighten it out.....
I felt like throwing him off the van right then and there, but I'm am but a lowly driver. I did, however recount the story to my department head, who said he's call Ricky's Case Worker so she could be extra careful if/when he brings in his paperwork in a few weeks.
Story 2:
Annie (yes the previously mentioned Annie) is a 28 year old single mother of 2 kids, 4 and 6 years old. She'd been working as a waitress and is living in a local dive at the edge of town. She's decided to go back to school to get her CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) certification at the local Vo-Tech school. For Annie, she's lucky enough that her mom can take care of her kids while she's in school. Annie, also no genius, is earnest in trying to work her way out of her situation. She never misses a day, keeps her paperwork in order and busts her butt as I see her studying her schoolwork for the 1/2 hour ride home each night. She gets home at about 5, deals with her kids until they're in bed, studies until late, and is back on the van at 6:20 every morning.
Her biggest problem recently was that her physician's office lost the results of the first half of a TB test she had to take so she could go to take her practical classes at a local nursing home. The practical classes are only given few a few weeks at a time, about 6 weeks apart, and since her TB results were lost and the re-done test results wouldn't be done in time, she's now sitting at home until the next go-round of practical classes. All because some med-tech can't find her test results.
So yeah, there ARE some poster children for the "welfare leech" on the van. And yeah, these people aren't swimming in the deep end of the gene pool, but the ones who've made their mistakes- be it having kids too early or one kind of addiction or another, or just plain stupidity that causes bad judgment, most of them are trying to make a better life for themselves. Welfare seems to be their last hope and last line of help. The workfare is at least not a hand-out, but to them, a hand UP.
As I say each night as I lock up the van and walk to my car, "It's better to be driving the van that riding in it."
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