The following article was on page 6A of the Jan. 6 edition of The Monroe Evening News and talks about a new program at the state employment agency office in Monroe, Mich.

By Charles Slat
ctslat@monroenews.com

Employers can get free labor through an unprecedented program being started by the Michigan Works! Monroe Service Center.

The effort is meant to employ people on welfare at for-profit businesses at no cost to the companies.

“We’ve not done this before,” said Barbara J. Verran, office director who’s been involved with the county employment and training program since the 1980s. “It’s really to get their foot in the door and get them work experience — something to put on their resume,” she said. “So many of them receiving assistance don’t have solid work experience or even a skill set.”

Those referred to the Michigan Works! Office from the Department of Human Services previously have been slotted in posts only at non-profit organizations. Broadening of the program now makes workers available to for-profit enterprises.

“We were only offering it to the non-profit sector but now we’ve really opened it up,” explained Carolee Goodnough, placement retention specialist with the Michigan Works! office. She said the program could help employers that already have suffered personnel cuts due to the economy. “Maybe when the economy turns around and people can afford to hire, they will give these people jobs,” she said. “If not, at least they get valuable work experience.”

She said there’s been a lot of employer interest in the program, which gets under way this month.

The unpaid workers can work at a business for up to a year and typically work an average of 13 to 16 hours a week. An effort is made to match the Michigan Works! clients with businesses based on the worker’s skills and interests and the employer’s needs.

The workers must meet the employment obligation or they could have their public assistance revoked, Ms. Goodnough noted. “They do face consequences,” she said, but the program isn’t meant to be any kind of punishment. The Michigan Works! office does site inspections and follow-up with the employer to ensure the arrangement is working out.

For the past year, non-profit employers have used a similar Michigan Works! Program. Ms. Goodnough said Mercy Memorial Hospital System has been one of the sites that has made use of it.

That relationship also produced one of the success stories when a client who had been on public assistance was slotted into a volunteer work experience post at the hospital. She was offered a job and subsequently returned to school for training as a Certified Nurse Assistant. “That’s how it’s supposed to work,” Ms. Goodnough said.

She said the program also provides another option for clients to remain productive. “You can only sit at a computer and do job searches so much with the economy the way it is,” she said.

Employers interested in the program may contact Ms. Goodnough at (734) 240-7957.