You have to wonder about how brazen or stupid they are to be doing this while many around the country have the entire Durham power elite under the microscope.
Older article re: UDI
The News & Observer
November 21, 1998
Nonprofit gets job-finding cash
Author: ELIZABETH WELLINGTON; STAFF WRITER
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: B5
Index Terms:
U. S. Department of Labor
employment
aid
UDI Community
Estimated printed pages: 2
Article Text:
DURHAM -- A nonprofit community development corporation was awarded $3.7 million Friday from the U.S. Department of Labor to help welfare recipients find jobs.
UDI Community Development Corp. was one of 75 operations nationwide to receive a chunk of the federal money, which totaled $273 million and was announced by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman at a news conference in Washington. Durham county and city officials dialed into the conference.
The $273 million from Friday's grant is part of $3 billion appropriated by Congress for the 2-year-old Welfare to Work program designed to put an end to welfare.
"This is altering welfare as we know it," Herman said.
UDI, a 24-year-old nonprofit, routinely seeks federal and local dollars to build low-income housing and provide job training for residents in the county's most blighted areas. The agency serves 16,000 low-income residents.
This was the second time UDI had applied for the grant. The first time was in March, but the organization was turned down.
The nonprofit has earmarked the new money, which it will receive over two years, to form partnerships with city and county officials, the Durham Chamber of Commerce and local businesses to help people who are the hardest to employ find jobs.
With the money, UDI will be able to offer computer training and training on construction sites, two of the areas with the highest job demand.
"We think this is a way for us to expand our offerings," said Ed Stewart, executive director of UDI. "We have a lot under way, and if people want to work, they will be able to."
Stewart said 400 Durham residents can be placed in the "hard to employ" category. Nearly 2,000 Durham residents are a part of the county's Work First program.
Recipients of the grant will receive the money in January. Stewart said his nonprofit hasn't identified the first beneficiaries yet, but the grant is still good news for Durham resident Audrey Brown, who is the kind of candidate who will be eligible for the training.
Brown, 48, is on public assistance and works on and off. She has job skills, such as being able to type 50 words a minute, and she has her high school diploma. But Brown is the mother of a 5-year-old son who was born prematurely and will have lifelong complications.
Brown said she can't keep a job because her son requires around-the-clock care. If she worked, she said, she would only have money to pay for her son's care and rent.
"How am I supposed to eat?" Brown said from her home Friday afternoon. "I am very excited. Maybe this will be a way out. Every day I have to figure out how I am going to make a living with a sick child. Maybe this will help people like me.
Copyright 1998 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.
Record Number: 1998324033