Communities need to use a holistic approach to help families whose benefits are about to expire, the director of Alaska's Division of Public Assistance told members of the Matanuska-Susitna Agencies Partnership during a recent meeting at Valley Hospital Medical Center.
MAP is a group made up of individuals who work in the social services field. Nugen's Ranch, Head Start, United Way and Love Inc. are among the agencies represented.
The pilot project described by DPA Director Katherine Farnham will begin this summer, to assist a core group of about 10 Valley families who have received benefits for 30 months. Those participants will be selected after staff training takes place, said Farnham, who guessed the pilot project would begin in late May or June.
In public assistance, benefits such as food stamps and monetary assistance run out when five years have elapsed. Social service workers have discovered that requiring job searches and teaching job skills to family members are not the only answer to making someone employable.
"People sometimes have multiple barriers keeping them from going to work," Farnham said. She cited drug or alcohol dependence and mental health issues as examples.
The customized employment model places the job seeker in the center, with all the agencies that can provide help encircling that person. So not only would a job developer, vocational counselor, employment consultant and employers aid the job seeker, but community mental health-care personnel, primary health-care workers and treatment providers would assist the individual with problems standing in the way of employment.
"[Agencies in the Mat-Su] are already using the model for persons with disabilities," Farnham said.
"The Mat-Su Valley is ahead of the game with the existence of MAP," she said.
Since MAP has been functioning for more than five years now, the agencies are already knowledgeable of other agencies, making the proper referrals easier.
MAP members expressed excitement about getting the ball rolling by forming a regional council to assist in adopting the service integration plan.
The growing economy in the Mat-Su also provides a fertile ground for this program's success.
According to one visual aid Farnham displayed during her presentation, the shared vision is represented by puzzle pieces that bring together work-force development and training, education, healthy communities and economic development.
"There needs to be jobs for there to be hope. So economic development is connected to healthy communities," said Bill Hogan, director of the Division of Behavioral Health.
The pilot project, designed to help families move from receiving benefits to being more self-sufficient, will be tested in the Valley, and in Fairbanks.
DAWN DeBUSK/Frontiersman reporter