Economic Services:
Work First Employment
Work First Employment Services assists with training, work
experience, and supportive casework services to enable Work
First Family Assistance recipients to become self-sufficient
and self-supporting. This program is administered by the Buncombe
County Department of Social Services.
Work is required for families on welfare. Work First is based
on the premise that parents have a responsibility to support
themselves and their children. Through Work First, parents
can get short-term training and families can get childcare
assistance and other services to help them become self-sufficient,
but ultimately the responsibility is theirs, and most families
have two years to move off welfare. In any given months, depending
on how many families come into the system, how long they stay,
and how many leave, the number of families on welfare rises
or falls.
Recognizing this, Work First emphasizes three strategies:
1. Diversion:
Keeping families off welfare by helping them cope with unexpected
emergencies or setbacks. Under Work First, qualifying families
a can get up to three months worth of cash Diversion Assistance,
childcare, Food Stamp benefits, and Medicaid, if they stay
off welfare.
2. Work:
Shortening the length of time that families are on welfare
by making work mandatory and by limiting how long a family
can receive cash assistance. To receive Work First benefits,
parents must register with the First Stop Employment Assistance
Program, sign a Mutual Responsibility Agreement, and once
they move into the phased-in work requirement, they can continue
to receive benefits for up to 24 months. Families reaching
the 24-month limit cannot reapply for welfare for three years.
3. Retention:
Helping families that leave welfare to stay off by encouraging
them to save and by helping to maintain permanent employment.
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