Work and Child Care

Welfare to Work

• 
  At work

  Mother: Marinette R

  "I found this security job on my own. I've always found jobs on my own because the welfare-to-work programs they send you to they never work for me. It’s kind of crazy because you sit there and they just tell you a bunch of stuff about how you have to have your hair. Like one day they put me to work there and they told me I needed a resume done. I don’t know how to mess with a computer so they told this lady, and she just puts me at the computer and leaves.She didn’t even help me. I got so stressed I left. They told me that if you leave and you never come back that you get sanctioned."

• 
  2 Tokens for One Week

  Mother: Joanna C

  "I take the bus to work. That’s why I had the picture of the two bus tokens. My sad, little tokens, because it was these two tokens that I had left for three more days of getting to work. Welfare said they couldn’t give me any more bus fare money because they already gave it to me. But of course, my priority is to feed my kids. I know that going to the job is going to pay me eventually, but I can’t let them starve all week long. So, I’m going to use that money to feed them first."

• 
  Stacks of Paper

  Mother: Joanna C

  "It never ends because I got through one stack of papers to file like that this week. I have another stack that big in a drawer, plus the lady keeps coming and bringing more and more paperwork.  I’m like, how the heck am I going to get through all this paperwork? My supervisor said, 'Oh no, you’re not going to get through it. You’re never gonna finish and it’s never going to be gone.'"