Other public assistance programs provided by IAJVS affiliates

Jewish Vocational Service, Chicago operates a healthcare aide training program for welfare recipients. The program is listed with a local registry which has enabled more than 90 percent of the program's graduates to find employment. Moreover, several recent graduates have enrolled in local colleges to obtain nursing degrees.

The Noncustodial Parent Employment Project (NCEP), run by the Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services Inc., Clearwater, FL, serves unemployed and underemployed noncustodial parents who are not making their child support payments, have children who receive public assistance, and are court ordered into the program.

Participants are assisted in establishing a pattern of regular child support payments by obtaining and maintaining unsubsidized employment. Major program services include court liaison, job development, supervised job search, job placement, case monitoring, educational and vocational assessment, and support services.

An independent evaluation found that the resulting child support payments generated consistently outstrip program costs, NCEP parents are more involved with their children, there has been a reduction in custodial parents receiving public assistance, and a number of children have been removed from Medicaid by being added to the noncustodial parent's medical insurance.

Through a customized "work first" program, Jewish Vocational Service, Los Angeles serves immigrants and refugees from the former Soviet Union, Armenia and Iran who are transitioning from welfare to work. Nearly 90 percent of the participants speak little or no English and the majority has no U.S. work experience. Utilizing its network of local employers, volunteer language tutors, and multilingual, multicultural professional staff, JVS has enrolled over 300 participants and placed 75 percent of them in jobs since the program began in October 1998.

These agencies also provide welfare to work services in their communities:

• Jewish Vocational Service, Baltimore
• Jewish Vocational Service, Boston
• Jewish Vocational Service, Cincinnati
• Jewish Family Service Association, Cleveland
• Jewish Family Services, Columbus
• Jewish Vocational Service, Detroit
• Jewish Vocational Service, MetroWest, New Jersey
• Jewish Family and Vocational Service of Middlesex County, New Jersey
• Jewish Vocational Service, Minneapolis
• Jewish Vocational Service, Montreal
• FEGS Health and Human Services System, New York City
• Jewish Employment and Vocational Service, Philadelphia
• MERS/MO Goodwill Industries, St. Louis