The DHS Unit staff and their supervisors at Pathfinders believe the RCA?ES guidelines are flawed. What actions, if any, can they pursue to amend these guidelines?

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

At present the DHS staff has little power or time to create change. One decision they need to make is whether they will seek to change these guidelines through education and advocacy or whether they will simply do nothing and go about their work. Hopefully, the staff will decide to try and find ways to change these rules. If they choose this course of action it will be important to begin by soliciting support from the DHS Unit’s supervisors, beginning with Caitlin, and other supervisors, administrators, or executives in Pathfinders. This will require a great deal of time and effort to educate important decision makers within the agency. It may also be advantageous for them to contact RCA employment counselors at other area social service agencies and ask how they handle cases like Ayana’s. Perhaps, through fostering interagency collaboration, they may initiate a movement that can culminate in lobbying the state to redact the RCA?ES guidelines in order to create an allowance for refugees with exceptional educational needs. At some point, they will need to engage Hennepin County and perhaps the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Some of the challenges before them include finding effective ways to educate the Hennepin County RCA administrator about the unique needs of refugees like Ayana.