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Alabama DHR worker urges Chilton County to allow blanket placements for family-assistance clients
Summary
Missy Brewer of the Alabama Department of Human Resources asked the Chilton County Commission to approve a blanket contract allowing community-employment placements — unpaid, supervised work that helps recipients build job skills — at county departments including Chilton Transit and the animal shelter; she said the county currently serves 39 family-assistance cases and can cover daycare, transport and uniforms.
Missy Brewer of the Alabama Department of Human Resources asked the Chilton County Commission during public comment to authorize placements of family-assistance recipients in county departments through a blanket community-employment contract.
Brewer said community employment is a work activity tied to family assistance (the cash side of federal benefits) in which participants perform supervised volunteer work in exchange for benefits. "Family assistance is, welfare," she said, adding that the county currently has 39 family-assistance cases and that placements are intended to teach soft skills and increase employability. She told commissioners: "Community employment is a work activity in exchange for welfare."
Brewer described supports her office can provide when it places clients: "I can help pay for day care. I can pay for transportation. I can pay for work uniforms," she said. She said placements have led to permanent jobs in the past: she recounted placing a single mother in a community-action office where she learned clerical skills and was later hired full time.
On program compliance, Brewer said participants are referred to her only after they are approved to receive family assistance and that drug testing is part of the family-assistance process when there is a history or suspicion of substance abuse. She noted that noncompliance can lead to reductions in benefits: "If they don't cooperate with the program, it does affect their benefits."
Brewer proposed a countywide (blanket) contract so placements could be made across departments without separate agreements for each office; she said her director, Marilyn Colson, would sign the DHR side and that she had provided a business card and paperwork for the commission to review. Commissioners asked staff to examine the contract language; county staff indicated that department heads would interview candidates and that the county's insurance would assume liability for accepted placements.
The commission did not vote on a contract during the meeting; commissioners asked that county staff and legal review the paperwork and that the item be placed on a future agenda for formal action.
