Ceta as a Vehicle to Recruit Welfare Recipients and the Unemployed Into the Home Care Field

A CETA project, administered by State Communities Aid Association, provided jobs in the home care field for 320 unemployed persons. half of them prior welfare recipients. Six voluntary agencies employed the workers. It provided a test of the feasibility of recruiting workers for the home care field from the ranks of the unemployed and those on welfare. At the same time, the project sought to prepare the workers for the unsubsidized job market. Workers in the project delivered services valued at $992,676 to marginal income clients who would otherwise have been unable to obtain needed home care. Some of the study's findings, reported here, are: the workers' performances compared favorably with those of similarly employed non-CETA workers; the workers generally reported positive work experience; they preferred full-time work to part-time; some workers experienced difficulties working with clients who had interpersonal problems. When they were interviewed after leaving CETA, three-quarters of the workers had been employed at some time since CETA and half the former CETA home care workers had most recently worked in home care.