[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 130 (Saturday, August 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1683-E1684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        THE TRUE MOUNTAIN SPIRIT

                                 ______


                           HON. HAROLD ROGERS

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 4, 1995
  Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to read this 
outstanding article on welfare and the fine work of the Christian 
Appalachian Project in my State of Kentucky.
  Groups like the Christian Appalachian Project do yeoman's work to 
help families in need in southern and eastern Kentucky.
  They truly live by their motto, ``Helping people help themselves.''
  I hope my friends will take the time to read this article. Not only 
is it a shining example of the hard work and dedication of our 
communities and volunteers, it provides hope for our future.
               [From the Mountain Spirit, May-June 1995]

                      Welfare: Investing in People

                         (By Margaret Gabriel)

       Apparently, when Jesus told his disciples they would always 
     have poor people in their midst, he didn't necessarily mean 
     the same people. Recent statistics from the U.S. Census told 
     Kentuckians that the number of people living in poverty 
     increased between 1989 to 1993, from 16.2 to 20.4 percent. 
     There's evidence, though, that people who participate in 
     welfare programs are not in a stagnant pool but a revolving 
     door.
       The May 1994 editorial in St. Anthony Messenger cites 
     statistics from the Children's Defense Fund, saying: ``. . . 
     half of welfare recipients are off welfare within two years. 
     Some occasionally return to welfare depending upon job 
     situation, but the overwhelming majority do not live a 
     welfare `way of life'; they use the program to get by between 
     jobs.''
       Christian Appalachian Project outreach caseworker Wanda 
     Penman is a good illustration of exactly that use of federal 
     entitlement programs.
       In 1987, Wanda, a graduate of Kentucky State University, 
     was a single mother of one child. She and Tonecia lived in 
     the home where Wanda had grown up and received Aid to 
     Families with Dependent Children and food stamps. She had 
     been working in a manufacturing job, but was forced to quit 
     due to child care conflicts. ``It was good money; I didn't 
     have to beg to get the bills paid. When I started on welfare, 
     I was drawing $162 a month, plus about $115 in food stamps. 
     I'd had a taste of what it was like not to have to struggle 
     with the bills, and I wanted it back, if only for a little 
     while.''
       Wanda had the chance to stop that struggle for a little 
     while, when she was offered six weeks of work at CAPRICE, 
     CAP's training program for adults with disabilities. She took 
     the job, even though doing so meant giving up her welfare 
     benefits, including government-paid medical insurance for 
     Tonecia and herself. ``I'm not a person to remain idle for 
     days on end. The life of leisure suits me for about a week. 
     It drives me crazy to be sitting around not working,'' Wanda 
     said. ``I really had to think about giving up that medical 
     card, but it was worth it.''
       The six-week job with CAP became a six-month job, then 
     part-time and finally a full-time position. However, she had 
     no insurance or Medicaid while she was pregnant with her 
     second child, and therefore had to pay for her pre-natal 
     care. ``It took me six years to pay off those bills. It's no 
     wonder that people are afraid to risk losing that card. It's 
     sad to say.''
       Until the fall of 1994 Connie Wagers managed CAP's Family 
     Life Abuse Center, when she temporarily retired to take a 
     position as a stay-at-home mom with her children, Lauren and 
     Jonathan.
       Connie's experience with welfare dates to here childhood in 
     Knott County, when her mother was widowed with seven children 
     at home and the eighth in college. Her daddy had been 
     disabled in a mining accident, then died suddenly. ``Mom had 
     not worked outside the home and had very little education, so 
     she had no choice but to go on welfare; there was no other 
     way to feed her children.
       It would have been far easier for her to continue in the 
     system, getting welfare, food stamps and the medical card, 
     but she firmly believed that any person who was able to work 
     should work. It's okay to take help to get back on your feet, 
     but not long term. She worked at whatever she could find, 
     cleaning houses and working in the school lunch room one day 
     a week to pay for our lunches. I washed dishes during recess, 
     too.''
       Connie calls her mother her ``greatest hero,'' and says 
     that from her she learned the value of hard work and the 
     importance of depending on herself. ``Mom always encouraged 
     all of us to get our education: she saw education as the key. 
     At that time in that area, girls were not encouraged to go to 
     college, especially if you weren't from a well-do-do-family. 
     It was just assumed that you'd get married.
       Connie says she ran in the other direction as soon as any 
     boy broached the subject of marriage, and with the help of 
     grants and loans--and the encouragement of her mother--she 
     worked her way through Sue Bennett College in London and 
     Eastern Kentucky University, earning a degree in social work.
       She eventually married Jerry Wagers, who traveled with an 
     oil company. When they decided to settle in Kentucky, a 
     promised job fell through, and they had to sign up for food 
     stamps for a couple of months, ``until he could get another 
     job,'' Connie said.
       ``It wasn't terribly dramatic, but I felt totally 
     humiliated, going to the grocery store and having to buy 
     groceries with food stamps. I had a college education and 
     there I was with food stamps. No one ever said anything to 
     me, but I've heard people make comments about people using 
     food stamps. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who's 
     not having to use food stamps, you'll hear it. And you see 
     the looks on faces.''
       Connie said that people who have been on welfare for 
     extended periods of time feel the sting of public perception, 
     too. ``I've hear the ladies in the shelter talking about it. 
     They would feel humiliated, like people were looking down on 
     them.''.
       As college graduates, Wanda and Connie have the skills 
     needed to find jobs in an area of high unemployment. Such was 
     not the case for Pete Laney. With the help of CAP's Community 
     Health Advocates in Magoffin County, Pete recently attained 
     certification as an emergency medical technician. In studying 
     for the certificate, Pete was trained to transport people in 
     Magoffin and surrounding counties to doctors' office and 
     hospitals throughout the region. His wife, Wanda, is studying 
     to complete the training, attain certification, and get a 
     similar job. CAP met Pete and Wanda when Wanda studied to 
     obtain her high school certification through a CAP adult 
     education program.
       A native of Magoffin County and a high school graduate, 
     Pete supported his family in the past with seasonal farming 
     jobs; Wanda receives an AFDC payment for a child from a 
     previous marriage.
       ``What we were taking in just didn't cover it,'' Pete said. 
     ``We paid $80 in rent, a $70 electric bill, and in the winter 
     we were out two or three hundred a month for coal. It ain't 
     easy. People say they've got it made on welfare; I don't see 
     how. There are people out there who would work, but you go 
     down to the unemployment office and they'll have a list of 
     jobs that long, but you have to have five years of 
     experience. Now, how are you going to get a job if nobody 
     will let you get any experience?''
       Pete, too, brings up the issue of how risky it is to leave 
     the welfare rolls for a low-paying job that does not include 
     medical benefits. His work as an emergency medical technical 
     pays him by the run, and when he's busy, the money's okay, he 
     said. `'That''s the good side, but
      the medical card is gone, and I can't afford the medical 
     bills if we were to have to go to the doctor.''
       When she was very young Rose Mary Bailey dropped out of 
     school to get married. It was not a difficult decision for 
     Rose; she said she hated school. ``In the second grade they 
     put me in special ed. I don't know why; I had straight A's in 
     the first grade. They held me back in the first because I had 
     missed some, so they told me I had to repeat. From that time 
     on, I said I didn't like school. My grades decreased, my 
     self-esteem decreased. I said what's the use of worrying 
     about it, so I didn't.''
       Despite her lack of education, Rose had an ambition not 
     often seen in dropouts, and she began working in the many 
     fast food restaurants in her native Salyersville.
       ``Working in fast food is a way to get off welfare,'' Rose 
     said. Rose has no children, so she was not eligible for AFDC. 
     Her husband, too, worked a low-paying job so they were 
     eligible for food stamps. ``It wasn't enough income to live 
     on, and I knew that if I was going to get out of this I had 
     to get a better job. And I knew that if I was going to get 
     anywhere I had to get an education. My friend told me there 
     was a position at the bank and that it required a GED. That's 
     one reason why I started working on it.''
       Rose began studying for her GED, through a program she saw 
     on Kentucky Educational Television, a public broadcasting 
     station. She worked on her own for about six months, then 
     finished her studies through CAP's adult education program. 
     In the fall of 1994, Rose applied for and got a job at a bank 
     in Salyersville, ``And I love it. I'm a phone operator, and I 
     balance checkbooks, and I'm taking college level accounting 
     courses at the bank.''
       Rose, a special education dropout and former food stamp 
     recipient, has set an ambitious goal for herself. ``I'm 
     planning on going back to school. Right now, my
      goal at the bank is to become a loan officer, vice-
     president, and move on up. I'm working hard and studying 
     to learn all I can right now. I try to pick up any 
     information I can. I'm terrible for asking questions!''
       Rose, Wanda and Connie have more than just experience 
     working themselves off welfare in common. All spoke glowingly 
     of the influence of their mothers, emphasizing the importance 
     of family in shaping the values of young people.
       Wanda said she felt awful about herself while she was on 
     welfare. ``But, Wanda has always been hard on Wanda. I have a 
     college degree, and being an educated woman, it was hard for 
     me to accept the fact that I was trying to survive on a 
     welfare check.
       ``I wasn't raised in a family that lived on public 
     assistance. My mother and father had 13 children, and I don't 
     remember food stamps ever being in our home. What I can 
     remember is big huge gardens that we all worked, and I can 
     remember the variety of jobs my dad worked. When I grew up, 
     we lived mostly off wild game and that garden. My mom took in 
     laundry at home after 

[[Page E1684]]

     working all day at the hospital or the school. We've always 
     been a working class family. The thought of drawing welfare 
     didn't set well with me.''
       Connie learned from her mother that ``It's okay to take 
     help when you absolutely have to have it, to help you get 
     back on your feet. But she taught me that any honest work is 
     noble, regardless of how little it pays. We have a 
     responsibility to help ourselves.''
       Rose credits her mother for encouraging her to dream dreams 
     and achieve her goals. ``She's always told me I was smart and 
     could do anything I wanted. That helped out a lot. When I was 
     sitting at
      home doing nothing she told me I could do better, If not for 
     her I don't think I would have tried. I didn't want to let 
     her down.''
       Other boosts in Rose's self-esteem came from Holly Rivers, 
     the CAP volunteer who tutored Rose, and from other CAP 
     workers she met. ``An organization like CAP has to be made up 
     of people who care for people who want help. I came in here 
     and expected, like anywhere else, to find snooty people who 
     looked down on me. I always felt everyone was looking down on 
     me, but everyone here treated me as an equal. They were 
     friendly, and told me I could do it. After a while I saw that 
     I could and knew I was as good as anyone else.''
       Wanda, Rose, Pete and Connie agree that the welfare system 
     needs reform, but they all expressed concern about the 
     elimination of benefits with the start of any work rather 
     than withdrawing them slowly.
       ```Supplementation is a real key to welfare reform,'' 
     Connie said. ``You have to encourage people to at least try. 
     If they're working a minimum wage job--obviously not enough 
     to support a family--at least let them keep the medical card, 
     something that encourages them to build up some self-esteem 
     and some pride and not be so humiliated that they're taking 
     handouts.''
       Connie said that capping welfare benefits is especially 
     unrealistic in the rural area because of the lack of jobs. 
     ``If the jobs are not there to make a living wage, what 
     choice do you have? We've had years and years of things the 
     way they are that discourage people from trying. It's hard 
     for a caring parent to give up a medical card and food for 
     the children to go out and work minimum wage.'' A combination 
     of jobs, education and better pay is crucial to meaningful 
     reform, she said.
       ``I worry about people, but I know there are some people on 
     welfare that are there just to be on welfare,'' Rose said. 
     ``I believe if they can work, they ought to. But it bothers 
     me to think of people that are unable to get a job. I've got 
     a brother on welfare that's not able to work. What's he going 
     to do? Some people are not able to work and are on welfare to 
     get by until they can do better; it's not right not to help 
     them.''
       Wanda believes that the methods of welfare reform she's 
     heard through the news media are unrealistic. ``You're not 
     going to be able to please everybody, and whatever you do, 
     somebody's going to suffer. My overall view is that people 
     should be able to use welfare as long as they need to, but 
     let it be because you need to. Like the mother with the three 
     kids, who knows that to go out and get a job at minimum wage 
     is not going to do it. Fine, use the system as long as you 
     need to, but after that let's look to doing better.''
     

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