By April Bethea
abethea@charlotteobserver.com

Mecklenburg County hopes to help 500 low-income residents find temporary work using about $10 million from the federal stimulus package.

The effort is a joint program between the county's Department of Social Services and five local nonprofit organizations that offer job-skills training and placement services.

The money will cover the salaries of the workers, and wages are expected to range between $8 and $12 an hour. The jobs will be a mix of entry- and mid-level jobs in areas like administrative support or customer service, and could last at least six months.

Participating agencies would donate in-kind support, such as supervisory staff or equipment use.

DSS officials said the agencies have already received some preliminary leads on about 300 jobs, and could begin placing some of the department's clients into work within the next two weeks. The program could expand in March.

The jobs program will be open not only to current DSS clients, but also to other residents who are looking for work and who meet certain income and household requirements.

Leaders said the initiative could help other programs currently offered by DSS and area nonprofits, such as career training, lifestyles classes or food stamps. DSS also has previously placed some of its Work First, or welfare, clients in unpaid temporary jobs, but hasn't yet been able to offer them money.

"We can cobble together all these (support) pieces, but if you don't have a job, that won't be sustainable," said DSS Director Mary Wilson.

Wilson said it was not yet clear whether earnings could reduce other assistance. State and federal officials are finalizing the details.

County commissioners are expected to hear details about the jobs program at a meeting this afternoon and will be asked to approve it at their Feb. 16 meeting.

Vice Chair Harold Cogdell, who leads the board's economic development committee, said the program "will have a short-term almost immediate impact of putting people to work." He said he hopes the effort will give people the chance to learn job skills and possibly lead to permanent employment.

Officials are working on a short time frame. The county received word last week that it had received funding for its project, but the federal money is expected to expire Sept. 30. There are some efforts to get the program extended.

The money for the jobs program is part of $5 billion that federal lawmakers included in last year's stimulus package to help states offer basic or temporary assistance to families, including subsidized employment.

The state of Tennessee drew headlines last summer when it used stimulus money to create hundreds of jobs in Perry County which, at the time, had the state's highest unemployment rate. The effort wound up providing more than 400 temporary jobs, and a similar program was recently announced for another county.

Unemployment in Mecklenburg has been hovering around 11 percent.

Mecklenburg DSS officials said they learned about the federal money last summer, and told state officials they wanted to apply.

They also began contacting nonprofits to get involved. The five primary partners are Arbor Education and Training, Center for Community Transitions, Goodwill, Urban League and Jacob's Ladder.

Jacob's Ladder executive director Steffi Travis said her organization has been identifying clients for potential placement for months, and believes they'll have people ready to go to work once the program has its final approval.

In addition to providing the salaries, the agencies will help provide other "wrap-around" services to the workers, including helping them find childcare or transportation, or even purchase equipment like uniforms, said Darrell Cunningham, who heads the DSS community resources division. He said workers will be evaluated throughout their jobs.

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