Work Experience Program (WEP)Testimony

Ketny Jean-Francois

Meeting with HRA Commissioner Robert Doar

June 11, 2008

My name is Ketny Jean-Francois and I am a single mother with one son, age 5 years old. I am currently unemployed. I live in the South Bronx. This evening, I will give my testimony on my experience and feelings about working in the unpaid mandated Work Experience Program.

Poverty is being unemployed and stuck, like I am, in government programs that use people as unpaid laborers. I have to provide clothing, household items, pay my utilities and most of the time I am only left with $2.00, if that much, to live on. Most of the time when my Food Stamps run out before the next month I have to buy food on my own. Often, I have to use my Food Stamps to buy lunch while at the WEP sites.

I am assigned to WEP in the Human Resources Administration (HRA). I do not receive a wage, nor benefits of vacation, sick or personal days and there are no chances of actually getting a real job at the unpaid WEP site, let alone a promotion at the site or a title in exchange for my labor. I am not entitled to Earned Income Tax Credit benefits because I do not get paid. I cannot use the unpaid Work Experience Program assignment on my resume because there is no one that potential employers can call to verify that I work there because most of the people don’t know who the unpaid WEP workers are. There is a constant stream of WEP workers coming and going at the sites.

My job duties are to remove the staples on documents and file them in boxes for the warehouse. I do this for eight hours per day. I think this is a waste of my time and is certainly not designed to give me any kind of experience. I have been stuck in various unpaid “work experience” jobs for over 2 years.

My career interest is working in the health field. I have completed courses as a medical assistant and received my certificate for Certified Nursing Assistant and was accepted in school for the License Practical Nurse Program in 2008.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to give me a paid transitional job in the field that I’m interested in so that I could gain job experience in that, that coupled with my certification would help me get a good job in the end? I would like to see more paid transitional jobs in agencies like the Health and Hospitals Corporation for people like me who are interested in this area.

Recommendation

As a single mother, public assistance recipient, and Board Member at Community Voices Heard, I would like to see New York City become number one in the nation for creating more paid Transitional Job Programs for people who are public assistance job seekers.