Michael Swayze's Community Resources

Author: Michael Swayze

  • WFNJ Handbook

    Twenty years ago “welfare as we know it” was fundamentally changed with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. New requirements and responsibilities are now a standard rule, along with the availability of a number of supportive services. Yet, after two decades, information is not be readily disseminated so welfare clients can make informed decisions in their efforts to become self-sufficient.

    Every applicant for cash assistance is given a handbook which gives an overview of the program, available support services, as well as information on time limits, income disregards, work activities, deferrals and sanctions.

    The handbook also details the many programs that individuals and families may receive both while receiving assistance and for the two year period following case closing. A number of these programs are under-utilized. They include: Supplemental Work Support (SWS), Career Advancement Voucher Program (CAVP), Transitional Child Care (TCC) and transportation services.

    Available for downloading is the most current edition of the WFNJ Handbook, (revised April, 2016). Also available is a Spanish version.

    This is the first in a series of articles and documents to be issued pertaining to welfare and workforce development.

  • Montclair Affordable Housing Nonprofit Seeks Executive Director

    A Montclair, New Jersey nonprofit, HOMECorp, is currently conducting a search for a new Executive Director. It is an ecumenical, community-based non-profit organization formed in 1988 by concerned residents and religious institutions to improve and develop permanent affordable housing in Montclair. Their mission is to create and maintain housing that preserves economic diversity and ignites community revitalization while fostering financial empowerment.

    Prospective applicants for the position must submit an application by September 30, 2016. See job description and application requirements here.

    For further information contact Marion Conway at edsearch@homecorp.org.

  • Thank You Juan Cabanela

    Every once in a while we need to stop what we are doing and say “thank you” to a fellow human being. This country is filled with men and women who day in and day out are doing remarkable things. The other day – on Labor Day – in fact, it became known to me that a particular website is no more.

    For a number of years a website known as Contacting The Congress was operated by a public citizen, Juan Cabanela. While checking for broken links on this site it was discovered that his website had been shut down after twenty-one years of operation. Imagine, a website operating for twenty-one years, providing a very up-to-date citizen’s congressional directory, due to the efforts of one individual. Amazing.

    Juan Cabanela was not a politician or a paid political operative seeking to capitalize on his Contacting the Congress website. Instead, he is a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Minnesota State University.

    Although his site was shutdown last week, he has left us a dozen links to the U.S. Congress, so we won’t feel so lost or abandoned. Thank you, Dr. Juan Cabanela, for your activism and your efforts these past two decades.