Using a faith-based organization to serve as an intermediary in a mentoring program
Abstract
When Ottawa County, Michigan, was selected as a pilot site for the state's ambitious welfare-to-work "Project Zero" Initiative, officials invited the director of the highly experienced Good Samaritan community ministry program, Bill Raymond, to help design a comprehensive strategy. The plan included a key role for the faith community, and Good Samaritan was granted funding from the County to launch a church-based mentoring program for Project Zero participants. Within one year Project Zero reduced the number of non-working families on its welfare rolls from 142 to 10 in Ottawa County.Issue
Collaborating between government and faith-based organizations to achieve long-term social change.Action
In 1996, Ottawa County, Michigan was selected as a pilot site for the state's ambitious "Project Zero" Initiative — aimed at getting every able-bodied welfare recipient into a job. Based in large part on its history of service, Ottawa County granted Good Samaritan Ministries funding to launch a church-based mentoring program for Project Zero participants.
- Good Samaritan recruited and trained volunteers from over fifty churches (many of them places of worship that had never partnered formally with government).
- The role of volunteers is to:
- Mentor struggling families for six months to one year, providing emotional and spiritual support
- Assist with practical skills such as problem solving and financial counseling
- The training for volunteers includes:
- Four hours of initial training with Good Samaritan Ministries staff
- Working three to five hours a month with a team of three or more volunteers
- In 2003, Good Samaritan continues to train volunteers to perform mentoring services, an optional but widely used component of the Project Zero program.
Context
Good Samaritan Ministries in Ottawa County, Michigan is a faith-based organization with over twenty years experience in community ministry. Good Samaritan Ministries supports a network of approximately 80 churches acting as a clearinghouse and responding to over 3,000 requests each year. Information and referrals are provided to agencies as well as links to churches that meet short term needs for child care, transportation, small home repairs, and other volunteer services. The clearinghouse also helps churches screen requests for financial assistance from non-church members and serves as a central storehouse for church services information. Services are offered in collaboration with social service agencies in ways that link people to existing resources and identify and develop services that fill current gaps while avoiding unnecessary duplication.
Project Zero is part of the Michigan Department of Career Development's (MDCD's) continuing welfare initiatives, which help public assistance recipients make the transition to self-sufficiency through educational and training activities. The 25 local Michigan Works! Agencies (MWAs) operate Project Zero initiatives throughout the state. The funds allocated to the MWAs for Project Zero are used to help identify and remove barriers to employment by providing job search assistance, education and training programs, and employment-related supportive services such as transportation allowances, uniforms, tools, and automobile repairs.
Citation
For an in-depth analysis of the role of faith-based organizations in social services, see Sherwood, David A., editor.Charitable Choice: The Challenge and Opportunity for Faith-Based Community Service. North American Association of Christians in Social Work, 2000.
Outcome
As a consequence of their involvement in the project, Good Samaritan helped facilitate the entry of new faith groups into the social services arena. In 2000 other Michigan counties replicated Ottawa County's model of identifying an intermediary organization (e.g., the local council of churches, Salvation Army, Lutheran Social Services) that could encourage individual congregations to participate in mentoring programs.
The churches play a major role in helping individuals and families develop long-term solutions to problems of poverty and homelessness.
Evidence
In 2001, there were 45 churches that participated in mentoring services. Two hundred and fourteen volunteers served 173 families.
In just one year, (1996-97) Project Zero reduced the number of non-working families on its welfare rolls from 142 to 10. Ottawa County previously had an unemployment rate of only 3 percent but besides the existence of jobs, people need transportation, day care for their children, and the discipline and life skills to keep a job once they have landed it.
Loren Snippe, director of the Ottawa County Family Independence Agency (FIA) and William Raymond, director of Good Samaritan Ministries, were part of a seven member panel at a Welfare to Work Coalition Meeting in Washington D.C. in August of 1997.
Good Samaritan Ministries has contracted with the Carl Frost Center for Social Science and Research to conduct an evaluation of its mentoring programs. The evaluation is to take place over a three-year period, and is designed to track clients at various intervals following the time at which they exit a program. The goal will be to evaluate functioning at three, six and twelve month periods following acquisition of employment, in order to determine the extent to which the mentoring programs have long-term impact on client functioning.
Posted On
May 1, 2003For More Information
Resources
From The Resource Center library:
Charitable Choice: The Challenge and Opportunity for Faith-Based Community Service
Item number: M1926