Don’t Cut Us Out
JTP graduate Taylor solicits corporate donations on behalf of Housing Works.
When Frederick Taylor found out about Housing Works’ Job Training Program (JTP) back in 2004, he hadn’t worked full-time in six years. He wasn’t sure if anyone would hire him because he had HIV. But Taylor persevered and enrolled in JTP.
“I was sick and tired of handouts,” Taylor said. “Public assistance doesn’t assist and aid you like it should.” Now he is a sales associate at Housing Works Thrift Shop on 17th Street. He is also a donations associate, soliciting donations for Housing Works’ biggest fundraising events, Fashion for Action and Design on a Dime.
On Monday, Taylor told his story to state legislators. He is one of dozens of JTP students and alumni making the trip to Albany every week to educate legislators about the importance of job training for people with HIV. Despite the success of the program, Governor Paterson’s 2009-10 budget threatens to eliminate the $1.4 million in state funding that supports it.
This cut is particularly troubling because the program has consistently ranked high among the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA)‘s “mission-driven programs.” Job training program graduates have gone on to employment at organizations such as Bellevue Hospital, Planned Parenthood and NYU.
This $1.4 million welfare-to-work program is unique among job-training programs because it doesn’t give programs full funding until graduates receive a full-time job with health insurance. State funds support seven such programs in New York City, Westchester, Albany and Syracuse. Between 2003 and 2008 the program placed 615 poor New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS into employment.
Housing Works won the fight to restore the threatened funding cuts last year.
The legislative offices Taylor met with (including Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who was there in person) were universally outraged by the cuts to job training, as were all of the legislators Housing Works has met with. The JTPers are attempting to meet with every state legislator to make sure no one will block a probable amendment by the Assembly Social Services committee to reinstate funding for job training.
“This is a winnable battle, but we need to keep doing the leg work to make sure each legislator realizes that this small pot of funding makes a huge difference for New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS who really want jobs,” said Housing Works Vice President of New York Advocacy and Public Policy terri smith-caronia.
What would happen if funding stopped?
Reinstatement of funding is not guaranteed. And a cut to the job training program would be devastating for hundreds of New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS. Some programs would certainly be eliminated. At Housing Works the program has institutional support that would stop the program from being completely eliminated, but the program would certainly lose effectiveness.
“We would have to drastically cut the program,” said Linney Smith, Housing Works senior vice president of prevention and services. “We would be unable to provide the wage subsidy, travel allowance, stipend and hire the job coach. We would be cutting a program that has proven to be a viable source of training and employment for people living with HIV and AIDS. We will be returning people to welfare or causing people to stay on welfare when they would prefer to learn a skill and be gainfully employed.”
Thanks to his job at Housing Works, Taylor has flourished. He is financially self-sufficient, renting an apartment in Queens with his partner.
Taylor said Housing Works’ Job Training Program also helped him come to terms with his HIV status. “Along with soft and hard skills, JTP taught me how to deal with stigma,” he said. “I’m not ashamed to tell customers I’m HIV-positive. I want to show people that I’m alive and I have energy.”
Contact your state legislators and tell them to support funding for job training for people living with AIDS! Find out who represents you and give both your state senator and assemblymember a ring!
Posted on February 27, 2009 at 2:04 am
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