In July 2000 I sought welfare services for the purpose of moving from one county to another. When I got to the new county, I didn't have a job and my son was just 2 weeks old. I was living in Dutchess county and became pregnant with my son. I stayed in a shelter for unwed mothers there for nine months and then moved home to Westchester where I was raised and where my mother lives.

My first case worker, Ms. Lewis, was very nice. She told me that I wasn't obligated to do a work activity because my son was just a few months old and said that I had the option of going back to bet a GED. The process of applying for assistance was fine. A few months later when my son was about seven months old, DSS called me in for a meeting and said I had to go into the job search program. After 6 weeks in the program, I did get a job but before I could begin working there, the company sent me a notice saying that they were merging with another company and were cutting jobs, so they wouldn't be hiring me after all.
I then decided that I needed more skills and a degree so I enrolled at Monroe College for an Associates Degree in health care management. But when DSS found out that I was in school, they told me that they wouldn't approve for me to continue school there. I was really surprised that they wouldn't want me to go to school so that I could better my life and my child's life. Welfare told me that I couldn't go to school because I had previously gotten a home health aid certificate and that was all the training I needed. But I told them that the salary was only $6.50 and hour and wasn't enough to pay for me and my son to afford rent, food and all the other costs of living. Welfare responded that helping me get better training for a living wage job wasn't their responsibility. Then I told them that if they wanted me to work, then I could get work study which would let me work on campus, get paid, and stay in school. But welfare didn't want that either. They told me that they didn't want me in school but wanted me in a job placement program. Even though I wanted to fight to stay in school, I was afraid of losing mine and my son's benefits, so I agreed to do the job placement program they were making me do.

Having gone through what I've gone through, I want to see a little bit more compassion for people in my situation. I mean everyone's a few paychecks away from being on welfare. There can still be rules, but make it rules that fit the person and their situation. Have more education involved and training involved so that you're not just sending people out to look for whatever job that exists. Have more compassion for people in need. The other thing is the need for childcare assistance. With the economy the way it is now, a person just getting on their feet after being on public assistance, child care assistance is a must. It's not cheap to have a child care provider-that's almost as much as paying rent. Lastly, if there's going to be a rule or law, it should be for everybody. Westchester shouldn't have one rule but NY City have another one. In Westchester, I couldn't count work study towards my welfare work hours, but in NY City, they have a process in place for those students. It should be that people all over the state should have the same rights.