AG 1995 01 17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: John Witherspoon, County Manager Jim Cook, Social Services Director 1-9~95 Board Approval for Submission of a Grant Request I am writing to ask that the Board of Commissioners approve the Department's submission of a grant application to the Cannon Foundation at its mid-January meeting. We would like approval of a grant application submitted for the Foundation's January 15, 1995 quarterly due .date. The request is for up to $50,000 in Foundation funding to be used with an equal amount of County funding up to $50,000 to be identified from savings and o. ver-realized revenues, within the cup__eat,year .D. SS budget. The grant wou~ttlized to Pur~-fi-ase computer programmer serV~lc~s for programming of the Cabarrus public fisSistance Single appliCati0n_within the ~oc~.q.~al area network being in~rtment. The single application will produce substantial staff time savifi~lan includes a-prOposal to reallocate a portion of the staff time saved for operation of a workfare program for appropriate public assistance recipients on a pilot project basis (provided waivers and approvals can be secured). BACKGROUND AND NEED The need to reform the welfare system has become a top national priority. There is a need to improve program policies so that they require people to do all they can to support themselves and their families. Reform must also eliminate the inefficiency and waste with which the existing programs are administered. In FY 92-93, administrative costs alone for the five primary federal and state mandated public assistance programs operated by North Carolina's county departments of social services totaled $168.4 million. Taxpayers in North Carolina counties experienced an increase of 223% in these costs during the 1980's. At the same time, resources for other pressing community problems from violence in schools, to substance abuse, to teen pregnancy, to battered spouses, to availability of safe child day care, to alternatives to nursing home care for older adults, to help for abused children, to job training for welfare recipients, have been in short supply and desperately needed. Much less could be spent administering the public assistance programs, saving overburdened tmxpayers and freeing resources for other community needs. However, in the e,,dsting system, uncoordinated state and federal bureaucracies control the Food Stamp, AFDC, Medicaid, Low Income Energy Assistance, and State/County (rest home) Assistance programs. Uncoordinated policy structures, data gathering and tracking mechanisms, application and verification processes, and issuance systems have been developed and imposed on local agencies. Department of Social Services P.O Box 668 ,, Concord, NC 28026-0668 · (704) 786-7141