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Section 3 of the report places Taking Charge! within the Strategic Initiatives, reviews its target client group and discusses program coverage.

3.1 Taking Charge! and the Strategic Initiatives

The Government of Canada has entered into agreements with the provinces and territories to fund a variety of Strategic Initiatives (SI). These SIs are designed to test a range of innovative approaches to addressing employment barriers in ways that are consistent with Canada's social security reform. The ultimate objective of the SIs is to develop policies to reduce dependency on income assistance by increasing participation in the labour market.

In 1996/97, 7,963 single parents were on income assistance in Winnipeg every month. In 1997/98 this dropped to 7,499 each month, for an overall average of 7,731 per month. The costs to the public finances are large. Aside from the direct income assistance payments, these families make little direct contribution to the economy or tax revenues. Further, many single parents remain in poverty for an extended period and income assistance often becomes an inter-generational phenomenon, where children assume that welfare payments are a normal or even desirable source of income. Programs such as Taking Charge! seek to change this culture of poverty.

The rapid increase in the skills requirements of the modern service and manufacturing economy creates barriers for many with low education and training. Many single parents have left school well before high school completion and have had only cursory contact with the labour market.

For many years, social policy analysts have advocated increased labour market attachment to interrupt the cycle of income assistance dependency. Social services must emphasize self-reliance, both through training and by compelling eligible income assistance recipients to seek employment. Also, research from the United States emphasizes the role of partnerships with public and private training service providers, employers, and community resources as instrumental to the success of initiatives aimed at reducing reliance on welfare.¹³

Specifically, the objectives of Taking Charge! are:

• To assist single parents to attain economic self-sufficiency through labour market participation, thereby helping their children to escape the cycle of poverty and social dependency.
• To provide support to participating single parents more effectively and at lower long-term public cost.
• To increase community involvement in service delivery and employment development.
• To evaluate project delivery models, thereby allowing both Canada and Manitoba to consider new policy and program directions.

The design of Taking Charge! is consistent with the rest of the Strategic Initiatives in terms of being client-centered and innovative, and in terms of its commitment to involve community. As well, evaluation is a requirement of Taking Charge! as it is for all the SIs.

One of the issues identified in the evaluation framework is program relevance. Taking Charge!'s potential for innovation and evaluation, as well as its potential to offer information that can be used in developing social policy, is central to its relevance. As we mentioned above, Taking Charge! elected to respond to the delayed start-up with a fast-tracking process. This process, examined in detail in Section 4, altered the original design and reduced the extent of innovation and experimentation embodied in the Taking Charge! "model." Once the Board and government adopted a target of 900 clients processed each year and 500 employed, the original design had to be amended. The one-stop shop model where clients could be assessed, offered a job plan, and directed to training, all the while receiving collateral supports (day care, cafeteria-style computer training, executive closet, etc.) was augmented with more traditional purchase of seats and contract training. This change reverted Taking Charge! to a more traditional portfolio of training interventions, and much of its uniqueness was eroded. Taking Charge! has therefore, moved some way from the original intent of experimentation inherent in the Strategic Initiatives.

3.2 Coverage of Target Client Needs in Manitoba

3.2.1 How large is the "target market" for Taking Charge!?

As originally planned, Taking Charge! has a very direct objective: to accept 900 single parents on income assistance in each year from 1995 to 1999. Of these, 500 are expected to find employment. Over its formal lifetime, Taking Charge! was expected to train/place 4,500 single-parent income assistance clients. This represents a regular expected "inflow" of approximately 75 clients a month into Taking Charge!. The program is currently operating at this level. However, program operations date from April 1996. The initial delay in program operation meant that Taking Charge! had no activity for the first several quarters and is expected to serve about 3,700 clients by March 1999.

The "market" for Taking Charge! consists of single parents on assistance. As Figure 1 shows, at the beginning of 1998, Winnipeg had about 7,300 single-parent income assistance clients. Many of these have work deferrals as a result of disability or having children less than six years of age.

Of the total single-parent E&IA caseload, about 3,000 have had work expectations assigned.¹⁴ Taking Charge! is currently accepting about 920 clients annually, or 77 a month. By this measure, Taking Charge! is serving approximately 1 percent of its total client potential.

3.3 Program Coverage - Gaps and Duplications in Service

Whether Taking Charge! has gaps in service or duplicates what is available from other programs is a complex issue. In terms of fulfilling the original design of a one-stop service for training single parents on income assistance, Taking Charge! and its contract service providers offer a wide spectrum of services. While several service providers offer similar programs, it is of more concern whether Taking Charge!, through its wide range, duplicates other services. Specifically, an issue we raise in this section and address in more detail in Section 4 is whether Taking Charge! is expanding into areas well covered by other programs such as Employment Connections.

3.3.1 Taking Charge! has few gaps in service for training income assistance clients

Taking Charge! offers a comprehensive portfolio of services both in-house and through training service providers. As is apparent from Section 2, Taking Charge! offers a comprehensive set of services for single parents on assistance. Most key informants believe that the target clientele is appropriate and few suggest that the program could expand to offer service to all E&IA clients.

3.3.2 Duplication of service is likely

In its design, Taking Charge! did not duplicate services offered in Manitoba. With the creation of Employment Connections, as well as other interventions, and decisions by the Board of Taking Charge! to stress programs to gain immediate employment, Taking Charge! evolved into a broker of a broad spectrum of training services. It has become one of several training organizations. Duplication and overlap among these interventions is likely.

3.4 Summary

After five years, the training context for income assistance clients has evolved. Taking Charge! is now one of several training programs and is unique only in the extent of collateral services such as day care and the computer lab it offers to its participants. It has moved away from the objectives of the Strategic Initiatives to meet what it perceives are the needs of single parents on income assistance. It is now less distinguished from other labour market interventions available to this target group.

Footnotes

13	See Levitan, Sar. A. and Frank Gallo, A Second Chance: Training for Jobs. Kalamazoo, Michigan, WE Upjohn Institute (1988).
14	This is a dynamic number, with some individuals coming off assistance and others going on. Over the past year, the net removals from income assistance for those with work expectations is about 25 a month. Recently, case loads have been increasing.