Client Needs Survey
Tola Levison, chair of the Mendocino County Department of Social Services Citizens Advisory Council (CAC), announced that work is well underway to collate results of a client needs survey, distributed to recipients of public assistance in Mendocino County in September of this year. The survey was mailed to 5,050 households with 1,370 completed and returned. Considering the length of the survey and detailed information requested, the return rate of 27% substantially exceeded expectations.
Due to the far-reaching impact of welfare reform, CAC members felt it essential to have access to current information regarding the public assistance caseload in Mendocino County, including the views and recommendations of those receiving aid, on topics relating to welfare reform, such as employment, transportation and child care.
Though the CAC initiated the survey, Levison described it as a group effort involving a substantial number of volunteers who helped in developing the survey format and collating data when the forms were returned. Joe Hoffman, Business Agent of Local 707, Service Employees International Union, the County employees union, assisted with design of the data base and with entering data.
Preliminary Findings
Processing and collating of the results were not completed by press time. However, a number of preliminary findings are forthcoming. For example:
- There are clusters of clients, residing in remote areas of the County, Laytonville and Covelo, for example, for whom lack of reliable transportation, particularly to appropriate job sites in, say, Willits, is the primary impediment to finding employment. Several clients mentioned loss of their driver's license as a barrier to finding work.
- Many respondents were willing to work but feel that available jobs don't offer a living wage.
- A number of respondents prefer to remain at home while their children are pre-school age.
- For some, the expense of child care is prohibitive.
- A frequently encountered theme is that respondents are unclear on what training they most need to develop marketable skills.
- It is apparent that a number of clients require assistance with such basic life skills as household management, parent-child relationships and coping with stress.
Levison stated that a majority of the respondents reported being on aid between one and two years; another group had received aid for a much longer period, five to seven years, with relatively few receiving aid for the time period between those two extremes.
Though it is not considered part of the plan that the Department of Social Services (DSS) is developing locally to implement welfare reform, Levison believes the client survey will be useful in testing the validity of assumptions and recommendations included in the county plan and thereby serve as a measure of its credibility.
Work on processing the forms should be completed in the near future with final results available by mid-November.
County Strategic Plan
At an October 23 meeting in Ukiah, county residents were given their final opportunity to comment on the DSS welfare reform plan before it goes to the Board of Supervisors. Approximately 50 people heard Ana Mahoney, the DSS welfare reform specialist, lead a discussion on the draft strategic plan she had prepared. Mahoney recorded comments and observations from the audience.
The strategic plan reflects the work of a series of work groups organized by DSS in May of this year to get the views and recommendations of community agencies and private citizens on the design of a service delivery system in the county which addresses the needs of the disadvantaged. Recommendations dealt not only with CalWORKS, but with other programs as well, such as SSI, Medi-Cal and food stamps. An appendix to the plan will include public comments. DSS will not attempt to affect or censure the work groups' recommendations.
The strategic plan documents the county's compliance with Section 10531(K) of the Welfare and Institutions Code requiring public input in development of the CalWORKS plan.
The work groups addressed such topics as employment and training needs of low-income persons, child care, transportation, the safety net and the unique needs of people living in rural areas. They also addressed issues of concern to Native Americans, immigrants and seniors.
Community Forums
In addition to the work groups, community forums took place in locations throughout the county. Mahoney estimated that more than 500 people either participated in the work groups or attended one of the forums during the five month planning period. She believes that the broad public involvement and awareness generated will strengthen the impact of the recommendations, lending them greater credibility, so that the plan will not be considered mere "fluff." She noted that additional funds may be available to help implement welfare reform. The county will aggressively pursue those funds.
In its present form, the strategic plan reflects observations and comments of participants in the work groups and at community forums as well as written commentary submitted by various groups and individuals. It does not include such other service delivery system components as staffing levels, budget, program standards and regulations, training needs and facilities required. These will presumably be treated in other planning documents and through other processes, not necessarily subject to public participation or involvement.
Fifth District Supervisor Charles Peterson, who attended the meeting, noted that he is concerned less with developing an "ideal" program than with assimilating and coping with the volume of information generated by the demands of welfare reform and insuring that CalWORKS is implemented successfully.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited