Applicants are invited for an introductoryclass and those who show signs of trouble areimmediately screened out. Half of the program isnormally spent pounding down such fundamentals aspunctuality, politeness and presentation beforecomputer training even begins.

When Wilson graduated from STRIVE, an acronymfor Support and Training Results In ValuableEmployees, she found herself in select company.

Eighty percent of STRIVE graduates find jobswithin two months and 80 percent of those retaintheir jobs two years later, according to studiesconducted by STRIVE.

The remarkable success rate has drawn nationalmedia attention to the Dorchester program andpeople are lining up to imitate STRIVE's formulaof motivation and discipline.

"It's a sexy program," Berlack says. "Itcrosses political borders because it gets peoplefrom welfare to work."

The People's Republik

In Cambridge, city officials are working inpartnership with community activists to determineweaknesses in the support structure for welfareand low-income families. Together, they hope todetermine the best way of allocating limitedresources.

"We're trying to find out in Cambridge whatconcerns we ought to have," says Cambridge mayorFrancis H. Duehay '55, who, as city councillor,organized the Cambridge Welfare Reform Task Forcelast year.

The task force set out to review the city's jobtraining and child care programs. Subcommittees ofacademics and activists are tackling education,legislation and health care. Fostering greatercooperation among individual Cambridgeorganizations is a primary objective of the taskforce.

Representatives from Cambridge and SomervilleLegal Services (CASLS) and the Community LegalServices & Counseling Center are joining forces toput together a panel of welfare mothers to givethem a voice in policy decisions. Although effortsat alliance-building are still maturing, taskforce members are hopeful.

"We've been working together to arrangetestimony from clients about how difficult it isto transition from welfare," says Ellen J.Shacter, an attorney at CASLS.

A Project to Empower

Just as STRIVE is helping welfare recipientsfind work, Project HEALTH--a Harvard program thatcombines the fields of health care and publicpolicy--is helping welfare recipients find healthcare.

Project HEALTH (Helping Empower And LeadThrough Health), founded in 1995 by Rebecca D.Onie '97, operates under the premise that patientsare their own best advocates.

Working closely with the Boston MedicalCenter's (BMC) pediatric department, where about75 percent of patients receive subsidized healthcare, 90 volunteers run 13 different programs withthe aim of meeting patients' physical needs whileempowering them to help them-selves.