Supporting Employment

NCLEJ and Colleagues Supported Access to Education and Training in New York City (2003)

We and our colleagues achieved significant improvements in policy and practice through the settlement we negotiated in our groundbreaking class action against the City and State of New York. This 2003 settlement – the first in the nation – makes the City a partner with mothers on welfare in designing effective welfare-to-work plans. As a result, many more women with children are being given access to education and training, including enrolling in vocational education and two-year colleges. Before this settlement, the City had refused to permit tens of thousands of single parents on welfare to spend any time pursuing employment-promoting education and raining. Instead, the City had used these low-income parents to displace city workers who clean streets, parks, and municipal offices, with no prospect of ever being offered full-time employment (Davila v. Eggleston).