Pleading with Congress to extend “Way to Work”

Businesses and workers knew the program was temporary when they signed up. But they say they thought the economy would be stronger by now.

The Philadelphia Unemployment Project organized a trip to Washington to talk to members of Congress about continuing a key stimulus program. Both the recently employed and employers joined the trip to preserve jobs.

Sarei Green pleads “Please don’t take away my job!” She was unemployed for about a year before finding a job through the federal Way to Work program, which funds temporary workers at small businesses.

John Dodds is director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. He says the Way to Work Project employs about three thousand people in Philadelphia and needs to be continued past the end of the month.

“So it’s not time to end it, we still need these jobs desperately and I think these companies need the people, a lot of these small business are right on the edge too and this is the kind of thing that keeps everybody moving along we need this until the economy really starts picking up.”

Dodds says even though they knew from the start the program was temporary the economy has not improved enough for employers to pay for these workers.