Community service employment is also an acceptable work activity for recipients before they reach the 18 or 24 month marks. Welfare recipients receiving aid when CalWORKs was implemented will be reaching the community service employment requirement in 1999-00.
Most counties are in the process of developing their community service plans.
The Governor s budget limits funding for community service to the costs of the workfare approach. New York City offers an important cautionary tale in this regard. Instead, tens of thousands of TANF and General Relief recipients are churning in one placement after another, no more prepared for a real job than they were when they entered the program. Workfare has also created a subclass of workers without the status and benefits of regular workers and it has resulted in job losses for the regular City work force. The immediate financial gains are enormous.