This program is being expanded to other state-funded treatment facilities. 8 Mental illness impedes employment not only by interfering with job functioning, but also by triggering job discrimination. The most common mental illness among welfare recipients appears to be clinical depression. Rhode Island Operated by the Northern Rhode Island Community Mental Health Center, Project Jobs provides temporary employees to approximately 30 local employers. In addition to mental illness, Project Jobs' customers face a variety of issues including substance abuse, arrest records, and lack of high school equivalency.
Customers work on days they feel able to work and are paid at the end of the week.
This approach allows them to gradually gain positive work habits, experience, and confidence. The Project Jobs customers work alongside their work sites' other temporary and permanent employees and earn comparable wages, always at or above the state minimum wage. Project Jobs' overall goal is to help its customers establish long-term employment goals and steady employment in the mainstream job market. The program has served 250 participants since its founding in 1991 and recently received funding to start a WtW program. As noted in Issue 5, programs working with welfare recipients must provide reasonable accommodations for disabilities.