Today when I was at the park with my dog, I overheard two women talking about this welfare to work program. I will call them Ann and Mary for clarification.

Ann was telling Mary about how she has had to be on public assistance since her husband died. She was complaining about how she had very little time to look for work and take care of her children. She went on to explain to Mary that the welfare department required her to volunteer 30 hours a week of her time in order to receive her small cash assistance of $600 a month.

Mary couldn’t believe that Ann had to volunteer for 30 hours a week. “Wow, that is a lot of time to give to a company…will they hire you after you do this?”

Ann went on to explain that there were no guarantees to employment. She had never known anyone who actually got hired from volunteering their time.

“Ann, didn’t you volunteer for the county?” Mary asked.

“Yes, I did. I volunteered for six months and they said that once a job opened that I would have the opportunity to interview for the position, but a job never opened and I got transferred to another county job.” Ann replied.

“That’s horrible, Ann. What are you going to do?” Mary asked in despair.

“I don’t know Mary. I can’t do this anymore.” Ann broke down, crying on Mary’s shoulder with tears streaming down her face.

This situation is all too true. When you break down the figures of 30 hours per week for 4 weeks and divide it into $600 per month…it comes to $5 per hour. That isn’t even minimum wage.

Employers…especially the county and city jobs are taking advantage of these broken women. How sad for them. It seems like a form a modern-day slavery to me.

Please hit like if you would like to see a change in this work to welfare program.

Written By: Ask Ms Mandi