Community Voices Heard

In early 2005, the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) implemented the Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment (WeCARE) Program to determine which public assistance recipients and applicants have multiple and complex barriers to employment and provide them with specialized services that were not available under HRA’s previous support and training programs. Based on discussions from June 2005 through August 2006 with over 700 welfare recipients in WeCARE, as well as in-depth focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and phone surveys with 100 of those participants, this report is a study of how the WeCARE program is supposed to work and whether or not it is providing the support and specialized services it is designed to deliver to public assistance recipients with disabilities. The report lays out the policies put in place by New York City to serve public assistance recipients with disabilities, relays findings based on participants’ first-hand experiences with the program and offers recommendations for systemic and service delivery improvements.