Hello all,

Wondered if any of you heard the interview on As It Happens (CBC Radio,
AM740; 6:40pm, Monday February 24th) with the founder of "America Works"
(Peter Cove)? This is one of the "new breed" of private companies that are
beginning to be given government contracts to manage welfare services.
"America Works" is based in NYC, but the idea appears to be gaining
currency in other jurisdictions. The fellow interviewed described very
matter-of-factly the "pre-employment training" that they provide to
unemployed women, that includes "how to dress" and the fact that if they
are even a minute late for class, then they are made to do the whole thing
over again.  They then act essentially as a temp agency, placing people in
work environments and checking up on them every week to make sure they are
'performing properly'.  Apparently the arrangement includes the company
being paid a bounty for every women they get off welfare - define as 6
months on a placement.  The "bounty" is $5,000 each, which at a contracted
500 placements per year works out to $2.5M in addition to cut of the salary
of placed workers.  The interviewee claimed to be well motivated because he
had a history of working on urban poverty programs in government and
non-profit contexts. He claimed that the market mechanism of "competition"
(plus access to private funds) was what made it possible for "America
Works" to be "successful" where government programs had previously failed.
The interviewer tried to challenge him gently on a number of issues, but
never really attacked his underlying assumptions (e.g. that what unemployed
single moms lack - and all they lack, is proper "training" and incentives
to be employed).

Welcome to the "new economy".


Blake Poland
Behavioural Science
University of Toronto