Chicago News Cooperative - A New Jobs Initiative Gains Converts

At the other end were colleagues who accepted and folded the ironed linens to be delivered to hotels, restaurants and banquet halls. For the two women, Kiana Miles and Elana Williams, the machine and its unceasing routine are engines for a fresh start in life.

Ms. Miles, 19 and a single mother, and Ms. Williams, 24 and recently homeless, just finished a second week at the DeNormandie Towel and Linen Supply Company. They’re delighted to be employed, with Ms. Miles willing to rise at 5:15 a.m. and take two long bus rides to start work at 7.

They benefit from Put Illinois to Work, a program announced by Gov. Patrick J. Quinn last week amid skimpy news media coverage at odds with the state’s economic travail. The effort, which started April 1, involves $215 million in federal stimulus dollars funneled through the existing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund.

So far, it suggests efficiency and creativity by a much-maligned state administration. You can chide Governor Quinn for not getting any traction for his tax program, but you’ve got to give him credit for getting some people back to work.

The state fulfilled a 20-percent match requirement by having employers provide in-kind contributions in training. In return for the federal government’s picking up the $10-an-hour salary, employers provide oversight and instruction in “soft skills” like timeliness and collegiality.

It’s not the traditional work force training program — aimed at creating higher-skilled workers — which has an uneven history. This one deals narrowly with an economic emergency and singles out those dependent on child care; seeks to employ 20,000 people statewide by mid-June; plans active outreach, including through churches; and uses subcontractor groups to provide site visits.

The money runs out on Sept. 30. Then tax credits kick in for employers who keep the new workers full-time. Even if the workers are cut loose, the hope is that they will have gained new skills.

“I’ve been in this field for 32 years, and this is unprecedented,” said Joseph A. Antolin, executive director of the Heartland Alliance. The group is a service-based nonprofit that focuses on economic, housing, health and legal issues for the needy and is the central administrative coordinator of the program.

“There’s little bureaucracy, and this gets people back to work quickly,” Mr. Antolin said of the program.

It is meant for parents of children under 18, and whose income is less than 200 percent of the poverty line. For a family of four, that’s $3,676 or less a month.

John Dernis, co-owner of the family-run Michael’s Fresh Market, appreciates the overriding need. In February, Mr. Dernis received 2,500 applications for 80 jobs at a new store in Downers Grove. He will hire five to seven workers under the needy families program, to stock shelves and work as cashiers.

“I think this is a great idea,” he said, and praised the state’s performance so far.

Mr. Dernis raised the prospect that some of the hires could work out so well that “we’ll train them to be butchers, managers, whatever.”

At DeNormandie Towel and Linen Supply, a family-owned company dating to 1903, the training program melds with a tradition of community giving, especially through summer employment programs. And though the company has 65 employees and didn’t have obvious openings — business is down for restaurants and hotels because of fewer customers — it decided that it couldn’t spurn the Heartland Alliance’s entreaty to assist.

The first hires did fizzle, said Rich Normandie, 28, the general manager and the fifth generation to work at the company. But he’s delighted with the six women who followed and said they had already shown potential for advancement.

Ms. Miles did not finish high school, and her last job was in 2007, as a hair stylist. Ms. Williams has both a high school diploma and a college associates degree in administration. But she wound up in a shelter, before connecting with the Heartland Alliance to find an apartment and, now, a job.

“It helps pay the rent and gives me a chance to add to my résumé,” she said.

That the governor’s formal announcement in Chicago elicited few news stories was deflating, if predictable. Local news media preferred to interrogate Mr. Quinn ad nauseam about that day’s fleeting obsession: whether the National Guard should quell Chicago violence.

Fortunately, getting the state back to work might just be easier than getting the news media to care.

via nytimes.com

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