Moreover, it is better in the long run, because the social services agency can also carefully track whatever effect welfare reform might have on the foster care caseload. Notably, the foster care caseload in our County has decreased steadily during the past five years, while the rest of the State's caseloads have increased. Again, effective management was the key. Matter Ever since that first magical year, the Job Center's strategies and its objectives have continued to evolve. In 1996, we established a second Job Center, in our other district office, and decided to open both Job Centers to the general public, in order to remove the stigma of welfare, and to mainstream our recipients with other unemployed County residents.
Diversion is now one of the principal objectives.
More than 2,300 of them were interviewed by Job Counselors, yet only 417 applied for cash assistance, and only 194 of those actually had their cash assistance cases activated. Some of them, quite frankly, do not believe the 60-month lifetime limit will ever be imposed. Our goal, you see, is to reduce poverty, not merely reduce welfare dependency. For example, as Chart 2 shows, the TANF grant and Food Stamps together do not provide enough income to meet the Federal Poverty Level. Clearly, in Maryland, work pays more than welfare.