That is the primary goal of WorkFirst, since jobs open doors to a better life. The state will pay half of the job training costs. After about six months, when they are integrated into the company's regular work force, participants will receive regularly scheduled pay raises and the opportunity for further training. Our goal is to do more than just hire WorkFirst participants into jobs. WRA begins its job-match program Aug. 1 in Spokane and King counties.
Plans call for expansion of the initiative statewide next year.
The state's role in the new partnerships includes providing child care subsidies, transportation services, training in employment skills, and other means of support outlined in the WorkFirst legislation approved by the 1997 Legislature. Since April 17, when Locke signed the historic WorkFirst bill into law, state agencies have mobilized for a complete overhaul of the state's welfare system. WorkFirst no longer treats public assistance as an entitlement, but rather as a temporary step toward employment. By providing new incentives to work, the state plans to reduce public assistance caseloads from approximately 100,000 families a year ago to less than 85,000 by June 1999. WorkFirst is designed to help people get that first job and give them the support they need to become economically self-sufficient.