Through several multi-year contracts totaling nearly $1 million, Penn State Lehigh Valley will help people in three counties remove their names from the welfare rolls and enter the workforce.
Lehigh Valley, along with an Allentown service agency, has been awarded a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare to conduct intensive "welfare-to-work" programs.
Through its Department of Continuing Education, the campus will work with the Hispanic American Organization in Allentown, other local community colleges and the local vocational technical school to develop programs to train clients to enter the working world. Under the grant, specific skill training in the areas of certified nurse assistants, customer service, retail, receptionist and hospitality will be offered. Penn State will offer courses at the Hispanic American Organization's new facility in Bethlehem, its Allentown facility and other community-based locations.
Classes in English as a second language, GED preparation and computer literacy will be taught in a modern computer lab at Lehigh Valley, where students will use up-to-date software for basic skills, typing, word processing, desktop publishing. They also will learn how to use the Internet.
Program organizers expect 470 welfare recipients annually to move into productive jobs as a result of this effort.