Woods:
This is KRCU’s Going Public. I'm Dan Woods, and I'm joined by Elizabeth Shelton. She's Executive Director of United Way of Southeast Missouri. Hello.
Shelton:
Hi, Dan.
Woods:
I want to talk with you about the United We Workprogram. I know it started last fall, but I'd like to just kind of remind folks what it is and where the program is at this point.
Shelton:
Yes, thank you. United We Work came about because of data that United Way collects. Every three years, we open up our grant application and we do research to confirm that we're putting money where it needs to be put out in the community. And one of the obstacles to employment that always comes back from employers, as well as job seekers, is transportation. So, we do have public transportation here, but it has, you know, limited hours and limited finances. So, we were trying to find something that would give employees free transportation on a new job to help encourage people to go to work, and then help them get to work.
United Way always tries to meet the need, but we try to go beyond and address what is creating the need in the first place. So, for transportation, one of the things we built into United We Work is everyone gets the free transportation their first month to and from their employer, but then the second month they have to pay for 50% of that. They have to meet with one of our participating banks to be able to get that. When they meet with the bank, they develop a budget, and the banks will help determine that they actually are going to be able to put money away to save for transportation in their second month, and also, you know, let us know — look this is someone who really is not going to be able to do that. Can we work something out to help them further until they can be doing that? Then we also wanted people to really begin developing relationships with local banks. It's very intimidating to go into a bank if you've never done that. You don't know what the process is.
Woods:
Even what questions to ask, maybe.
Shelton:
Exactly. So, we're finding that of the people who are enrolled in United We Work, those that have come into a through one of the workforce programs that's in place, where they have a mentor helping them, they not surprisingly, are more successful than those who are just trying to figure it out on their own. So, we are trying to encourage them and calling them and say hey, you know, so-and-so is waiting to see you. Our banking partners are calling them, also, and saying let's make an appointment. So far, we've had eight people who are in the program who have stayed with it. We're looking forward to seeing how they do going forward.
Woods:
So, this is one of those deals where if you have reliable transportation, you're going to get to work and be successful, but the other piece is just learning the budgeting part. It's one of those deals…It's that old saying: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Shelton:
Yes, that’s what we hope, and you don’t know what you don’t know. If you’ve If you've never created a budget before, you don't really know why you should or how to do it. And so, this also, we hope, is helping people learn. Oh, gosh, if I just put away this much money of my paycheck every week, then I'll have 50% of my transportation next month.
The long term goal, really, is to help these people establish relationships at a bank so that eventually they can get a car loan, if that's what they want, and then they’d have their own transportation. Ideally, they'll be able to get a home loan because anyone who is serving low income people…we all know that the most effective way to break generational poverty is home ownership.
We're very grateful to Healthy Blue that provided funding for this, and we're very excited that we have a new employee starting with us in another week who's funded by an AmeriCorps grant. He will be focusing on obstacles to employment and include transportation and childcare, which I hope we'll talk about another time. He will be able to really focus on this program and strengthen it and see what other supports would help the program and the people participating.
Woods:
Elizabeth, thanks for updating us on United We Work.
Shelton:
Thank you.