Budget woes lead Workforce Solutions to cut contract for youth

MISSION -- Workforce Solutions Inc. plans to merge its youth and adult services programs to try to cut costs.

The move has upset company employees who had been providing separate training, education and motivational programs for younger workers.

Edinburg-based Workforce Solutions is the workforce development board for Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties. The company delivers publicly funded employment and training services through a network of partners located throughout the region.

The organization plans to hand over the programs Good Samaritan Community Services currently runs to Arbor E&T LLC, a for-profit contractor that already runs the adult programs.

Workforce Solutions leaders plan to look for a new contractor to run all of the company's programs at once, said Bonnie Gonzalez the organization's chief executive officer.

Overseeing two contractors, who in some areas required separate facilities and whose services frequently overlapped, was becoming too costly, she said.

Good Samaritan representatives argued at a meeting Wednesday that they had cut their budget in an effort to help alleviate Workforce Solutions' funding woes.

The nonprofit agency also is better suited to serve a younger population, aggressively seeking teens to make sure they are employed, Good Samaritan CEO Jill Oettinger said. About 80 percent of Good Samaritan youth clients are not enrolled in school and comprise the hardest-to-find and most-in-need population, she said.

"That means staff that is outside of a cubicle, making connections and working with kids," Oettinger said.

The group also raised money as a faith-based nonprofit to provide additional services, including taking students on trips and college tours.

Still, using two contractors with two administration systems meant waste in a rapidly tightening budget, said Sam Vale, Workforce Solutions' board chairman.

Programs and employees will be transferred to Arbor during the next two weeks, and Arbor will decide with Workforce who will be moved to the contractor's payroll.

Several employees of Good Samaritan who attended Wednesday's meeting said they weren't optimistic their jobs - or the progress they have made with their clients - would survive the move.

____

Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.