What differences of opinion existed among the DHS Unit staff? What concerns motivated these differences?

Question

Nathan Bierwirth, BSW, worked as an employment counselor for Pathfinders Social Services, a nonprofit agency serving the Minneapolis metropolitan area. Pathfinders provided employment services for people leaving welfare, persons with disabilities, the homeless, and immigrants, refugees, and asylees. Part of Nathan’s caseload consisted of newly arrived refugees enrolled in Minnesota’s time-limited Refugee Cash Assistance–Employment Services (RCA-ES) program. Individualized Employment Plans (EPs) helped refugees transition from welfare to employment and self-sufficiency. EPs required a minimum of 35 hours per week of RCA-ES–approved activities, including employment services and formal education (limited to 20 hours per week). Nathan’s client, Ayana Tuma, a refugee from Ethiopia, had no educational or work experience and knew no English. This prevented her from effectively participating in employment service classes, so she enrolled in a full-time English as a Second Language (ESL) program. When Hennepin County audited Pathfinders, clients like Ayana, who exceeded the 20 hour instruction limit, could be sanctioned and even terminated from the program. As the audit approached, Nathan wondered if he should report Ayana’s ESL hours accurately or falsify her Employment Plan.

Answer 1

There seemed to be limited differences of opinion among the DHS staff about reporting educational hours for refugees with no English literacy skills. Most of the staff clearly expressed their opinion. Audrey still carried a degree of guilt over what happened with her first RCA client. This client needed ESL courses and Audrey permitted her to enroll in 32.5 hours of ESL a week. When Audrey contacted the RCA administrator to see if this was acceptable, the administrator terminated the client and Audrey had to scramble to secure a general assistance stipend for her client. Audrey saw permitting clients like Ayana to enroll in school more than 20 hours a week and not reporting this “as a matter of seeking what’s best for out clients.” She firmly believed this is “our primary goal” and she, with her supervisor’s knowledge and permission, decided not to report her two clients who were exceeding their weekly educational hours. Madison, who had one client in school more than 20 hours a week, did not want her client to lose any RCA support either and believed that if her supervisors were willing to “fudge” schooling hours for their clients, then she would too. Abebe and Desta, drawing upon their experiences as refugees trying to resettle in the U.S., emphatically opposed accurately reporting educational hours for refugees without English literacy skills. They firmly believed that falsely reporting hours for these clients was acting in the clients’ best interests.