State agency considers mandatory mentoring for welfare recipients

The Kansas Department for Children and Families is weighing the idea of making a mentoring program for welfare recipients mandatory.

Gov. Sam Brownback launched the HOPE Mentoring program in January.

The program pairs community volunteers with people using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, more commonly called welfare, in the hope that support from a mentor will enable them to lift themselves out of poverty.

DCF said in a news release Friday that it is “now reevaluating the program to determine if incentivizing participation is appropriate or if making it mandatory among some or all TANF clients would help clients to realize the value in a mentor/mentee relationship.”

Only 13 TANF recipients have signed up for the program, and 115 people have signed up to serve as mentors.

Both numbers are far short of DCF’s goal to pair 1,100 mentors with welfare recipients.

“We believe this program can be a valuable tool for our clients,” said DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore in a statement. “As the program is only six months old, we anticipated adjustments would be needed along the way. Moving forward, we will examine ways to improve participation and seek additional opportunities to support those we serve on their path to self-reliance.”

Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita, said she has no problems with creating incentives to participate, but that making the program mandatory could provide unnecessary hurdles to families in need of assistance.

“A lot of times when a family applies for TANF, they’re at rock bottom,” Finney said. “A mentor sounds good when you have time, but sometimes when people are applying for that they’re in desperate need.”

The program is part of Brownback’s larger welfare reform efforts. The state has reduced the time a person can be on TANF to two years, compared with a federal limit of five years. Brownback says that restriction helps push people back into the workforce.

“This is our job, everybody, as a state, to help people and to help each other,” Brownback said in January when launching the mentoring program. “We’ve got government programs, but that’s not enough. We need to put hearts into it.”

The agency also announced Friday that it would launch a similar program for teens aging out of the state’s foster care system. The acronym HOPE, which is used for both programs, stands for Hope, Opportunity and Prosperity for Everyone.

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 3:58 PM with the headline "State agency considers mandatory mentoring for welfare recipients."