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Featured Non Profit
Mint Leaf Productions

Mint Leaf Productions was founded by Kathy Leichter and Jonathan Skurnik in 1997 to make and distribute films of conscience and to help emerging filmmakers learn and grow.


 A Day's Work, A Day's Pay is a documentary that follows three welfare recipients in NYC from 1997 to 2000, as they participate in the largest welfare-to-work program in the nation. When forced to work at cit jobs for below minimum wage and deprived of the chance to go to school, they decide to fight back for workplace protections, living-wage jobs and access to four year college instead of workfare.


A Day's Work, A Day's Pay recently screened on Capitol Hill to Congressional staff. The film is playing a role in the national debate over Workfare.
Mint Leaf Productions in coalition with Community Voices Heard and American Social History Project's Worker Video.

Guest Editor: Councilman Bill de Blasio

New York is missing an historic opportunity to lead the state and the nation toward welfare policies that will help families reach true self-sufficiency. As of December 2003, 431,052 New Yorkers were receiving public assistance. According to the Preliminary Fiscal Year 2004 Mayor’s Management Report, over 25% of persons who leave public assistance for work are returning to public assistance within 180 days. In part, these numbers reflect New York City’s continuing economic troubles. They also suggest the outcome of a welfare-to-work strategy that continues to privilege encouraging public assistance recipients to find short term, low paying jobs over helping them find an optimal mix of employment activities, job search, vocational training and education to open economic opportunities in the long term. Although numerous studies indicate that welfare programs that employ a mix of education and job training in conjunction with employment activities enable recipients to gain meaningful employment and leave welfare permanently at higher rates, recent figures show that under a third of New York City’s public assistance caseload was enrolled in HRA-approved training and education activities in Fiscal Year 2003. Especially given the current climate threatening further cuts in federal and state support for public assistance, New York City needs to demonstrate commitment to welfare-to-work programs that yield the best results for participants.
Legislation passed by the City Council in 2003 aimed to do just this. Local Law 23 of 2003 recognizes the importance of work: it supports a policy of assigning public assistance recipients to work activities in excess of the minimum number of hours currently required by state and federal law. In addition, it sets qualifications for participation in training and education programs and requires participants to make consistent progress towards program completion.
Local Law 23 of 2003 also draws heavily from research regarding welfare reform demonstrating the success of programs that employ strategies mixing employment activities and education and vocational training to help recipients move towards long-term self-sufficiency. The Council also looked to innovative models like Maine’s “Parents as Scholars” program, which opened college doors to public assistance recipients and was so successful that Senator Olympia Snowe introduced an amendment to the Senate Finance Committee’s TANF Reauthorization bill designed to replicate it on a national scale. Full implementation of Local Law 23 would expand real employment opportunities for public assistance recipients in New York City by helping people get the skills they need to find permanent jobs that pay decent wages. This would help prove that New York City can and should lead the battle against regressive welfare policies and for true welfare reform.
Governor Pataki’s proposed 2004-05 Executive Budget contains several proposals that would undermine efforts to help public assistance recipients achieve permanent self-sufficiency. Among other things, the Governor’s budget proposes reductions in public assistance grants, more severe sanctions and reductions in financial support for low-income working families. Reducing support for and punishing families struggling to find work or working for low wages will not open economic opportunities for New Yorkers who most need them. New York needs to invest in proven welfare-to-work strategies and appropriate work supports for families struggling to leave public assistance.
The Bush Administration’s regressive approach to welfare reform would further undermine opportunities for public assistance recipients. The Administration’s proposal for TANF reauthorization would limit the flexibility states and localities have to employ innovative mixed strategies and would reduce the amount of time welfare recipients could spend in training programs, which would prevent many participants from completing a program or receiving a degree. In addition, the Administration has proposed reducing child care opportunities for children of recipients of public assistance, another measure that would undercut families’ ability to transition from dependency to long-term self-sufficiency.
The goal of welfare reform should be to break the cycle of poverty and dependence by providing people with the tools they need to achieve permanent self-sufficiency. It is not enough to place hard-working men and women in short-term, low paying jobs that do not offer opportunities for career development. New York City must implement welfare-to-work policies that combine education and job training with work requirements while it has the ability to do so. Only then can we serve as a model in the ongoing welfare debate in Albany and Washington.

Bill de Blasio,
Chair, New York City Council, Committee on General Welfare
February 27, 2004

 

 
Councilman Bill de Blasio
 


 



Featured Non Profit

Count Me In

Nell Merlino, CEO & President Count-Me-In


Count-Me-In is a not-for-profit Internet-based organization dedicated to helping women in need with micro business loans.
Count-Me-In uses a women-friendly credit scoring system to make loans of $5,000-$10,000 available to women across the U.S.


To ensure the success of their loan recipients, they provide business information and educational resources, where women can submit business-related questions online. There are also online workshops offered, such as "HOW TO START A BUSINESS" and "FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOP."


In addition to lending money, Count-Me-In is working to change the wording used on small business loan applications for women to better reflect women's lives from all different economic classes.
Since 2000, the organization has awarded more than $800,000 in loans to over 300 women, ages 18 to 75, in 48 states.


One of Count-Me-In's success stories is Heather McCartney. McCartney is the creator of Ethic Edibles, a Bronx-based company that educates by introducing global cultures through baking and food design. She started her company with a $5,000 loan from Count-Me-In.
Count-Me-Ins' newest program is Invest in Women Notes, which offers investors the opportunity to support its mission by buying interest-bearing notes. The money is pooled into a revolving loan fund, which goes directly to women entrepreneurs.

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Featured Non Profit

American Women's Economic Development Corp.

AWED was created in 1976 to help women start or grow their won businesses.
Through formal course instruction, one-on-one business counseling, seminars, networking events and peer group support, AWED has served over 1000 women from all socio-economic backgrounds.
Through its New Directions Program, AWED also assists low-income women receiving public assistance reach economic independence through business ownership and/or employment.
 

AWED'S programs include:
New Directions Initiatives for Low-Income Women - a program tailored for women receiving public assistance or earning low wages that provides entrepreneurial and life skills training, as well as a crucial support system.


Start Your Own Business  - a ten-week course (or an intensive 3 Fridays course) that provides a solid business foundation for serious aspiring entrepreneurs.


AWED Scholarship Program - for low-income women who would like to participate in AWED's training programs but either do not meet the strict criteria for participation in the New Directions program or cannot afford their modest fees.
The Small Business

 Administration has modeled some 80 women's business development centers nationwide after AWED's model programs.