CINCINNATI (AP) - A plan to help parents experiencing poverty in the Cincinnati region get and keep jobs is set to be released soon.
The Child Poverty Collaborative is scheduled to unveil its anti-poverty action plan in January, The Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Dave Herche, a member of the collaborative’s management council, has pledged $1 million a year for five years to pay for the initiative.
The collaborative said the plan includes several elements to help the under-employed get jobs and remain employed, including helping with transportation and providing emergency funds and wrap-around services like legal aid and family services, according to the newspaper.
The plan is based on the Beacon of Hope Business Alliance model. That model includes Cincinnati Works and Nehemiah Manufacturing, which have focused on helping hard-to-employ workers - including citizens returning from incarceration and those who have completed drug addiction treatment.
“Beacon of Hope, Nehemiah and Cincinnati Works have been able to show a significant improvement in helping the chronically underemployed and working poor who don’t have benefits to stay on the job - about 80 percent,” said Herche, who also is chair of the Cincinnati Works board.
Sally Duffy, interim head of the poverty collaborative and a Sister of Charity, said the collaborative spent its first years planning and learning - including talking with people who are living in poverty.
“We kept hearing, ’I don’t need to be fixed. The systems need to be fixed,’” Duffy said.
The Enquirer reports that a recently released U.S. Census Bureau Estimate shows poverty for children in Cincinnati remains above 40 percent with little improvement since the Great Recession.
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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com
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