Mission Update
by Kelly C. Martini, Women's Division Staff
Editor’s note: Since welfare changes went into effect, the Women’s Division has made more than $1.5 million in grants to programs that are helping poor women and their children impacted by the changes. This is the story of one ministry – Cookman United Methodist Church’s Transitional Ministries – that received a grant.
When changes to the welfare system were proposed, many residents of north Philadelphia asked, "How will I survive?"
Cookman United Methodist Church (UMC) is helping them find answers.
With a weekly attendance of 60, half of whom are children, Cookman UMC was faced with a task even much larger-membership churches would have found daunting. But Cookman UMC chose to do that which is unconventional and controversial. The church is serving the poor using Charitable-Choice funding.
Charitable Choice, a provision of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, provides government money to nonprofit organizations, including religious organizations, to deliver social services without having to follow many of the usual guidelines for separation of church and state.
Critics of Charitable Choice question if the plan shifts responsibility for caring for the poor from government to churches. Does the provision blur the distinction between church and state? Will the church be forced to work under state controls and requirements not in line with Christian values?
Those at Cookman UMC who have been involved with Transitional Ministries – the partly state-funded program – have committed themselves to working through these issues because of their commitment to meeting their neighbors’ needs.
Among those people is Wilhelmina J. Young. Ms. Young, a member of Cookman UMC, went to the state capital in 1995 with advocacy groups to voice concern about proposed welfare-law changes. She returned to the church realizing welfare change couldn’t be stopped. Families in Cookman’s neighborhood would be deeply impacted. Cookman had to look for community solutions to help people survive.
A look at the neighborhood shows why Ms. Young was concerned. Sixty-five percent of residents of the area have dropped out of high school. The poverty rate is high – 46 percent of the neighborhood’s families receive full welfare benefits and 49 percent receive Social Security.
The church applied for Charitable-Choice funding and received it. As members designed the Transitional Ministries program, they decided to include a spiritual component because they believe such a component is integral to moving people from welfare to education to work. Because of government funding, students in the program sign a waiver stating they don’t have to participate in religious activity. The disclaimer is repeated before every spiritual class.
Transitional Ministries focuses on education to prepare students for jobs and job advancement. State laws sometimes run counter to this focus.
"Pennsylvania is a work first state," said the Rev. Donna Jones, pastor of Cookman UMC. "That means that jobs come first."
If a student is offered a job, it becomes priority. Yet Transitional Ministries staff know that without education, students will qualify only for minimum-level jobs. So they have begun at-home schooling programs to help students get their degrees in their off-time.
"We are the Church," Ms. Jones said. "We deal with the human side of things, and people know we truly want to help. We come at this program from a different place than the government programs and that elicits a different trust level from the participants."
Doris Molina agreed. When her case worker gave her a list of programs throughout Philadelphia, she chose Cookman’s.
"My goal was to complete training and get my diploma," said Ms. Molina, the mother of a four-year-old boy. "When I came here, I had always believed in God and had faith, but here I learned more. I learned how to read the Bible. I was tutored so I could get my GED. And the life-skills class boosted my self-esteem because I could talk about any issue in my life."
Ms. Molina’s next goal is to complete two years of college and pass on the importance of education to her son.
"I tell him you need to go to school, to graduate and go to college," she said. When you ask her son what he wants to do when he grows up, he repeats this instruction.
Transitional Ministries was the first welfare-to-work program in which Ms. Molina enrolled. Yet for many students, the program is one of several in which they’ve enrolled. Because of the state’s strict standards, when students cannot meet the state’s criteria, they’re removed from one program just to enroll in another.
One such requirement is that a student who is absent from class for five consecutive days must be terminated from the program. But Ms. Jones recognizes there are extenuating circumstances that lead people to be on welfare and absent from the program – abuse, problems with children, court appointments, household disasters, high-risk pregnancies, recovery from addictions.
"We make a commitment to work with the students bouncing from program to program," Ms. Jones said. If students miss five consecutive days, have a desire to continue with the program, and have extenuating circumstances that the church could help them work through, they have been allowed to continue.
For making such exceptions, Cookman lost partial funding – a major blow to a tight budget. Yet those working in Transitional Ministries knew they had to work with these students and enable them to continue. Otherwise, the program was just another state-run program.
Ms. Young, the volunteer who advocated against welfare-law changes and who helped start Transitional Ministries, now works part time for the program, leading the life-skills class. Class topics include self-esteem, criticism, healthy relationships, communications, decision making, personal and financial planning, time management, and core values. Through dialogue, group members look at what drives their lives, who they are and what they value.
"We’re trying to help women look at themselves in a way that will be self-empowering," Ms. Young said. "Looking at relationships is the key. Many of the women are in abusive relationships. They don’t know how to get out of them or if they even deserve anything else.
"We help them look at who they are, their purpose in life and their dreams without feeling that they’re being selfish. Every woman has her own story."
There are several ways that Transitional Ministries differs from government-run programs. The program can be spiritually-centered – a choice left to participants. A Muslim student was given time with her imam for spiritual direction. Most of the students have chosen to attend "Sisters in Faith" classes.
Program Director Karen Milligan believes spiritual centeredness helps the women work through the secular welfare society. Students may have counselors without compassion or who want to lump them with everyone else in the class.
Recognizing the uniqueness of each individual is important, Ms. Milligan said.
"We emphasize that God has a purpose for your life," she said. "This program is a self-esteem builder."
While there have been challenges in following state rules, Ms. Milligan believes Charitable-Choice funding has given Cookman UMC’s program an advantage. It has allowed a small-membership congregation with few funds to start a ministry much needed in its community.
With classes that run the gamut – GED completion, life skills, computers, spiritual classes, employment preparation – those who run Transitional Ministries know they are offering more than government-run programs. They are offering participants a future.
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