MERIDEN - The Open DOHR Program at the Women & Families Center graduates dozens of certified nurse aides, medical assistants, and call center workers annually at its Colony Street offices.

But the program, which relies on about $70,000 in state funds, could be in danger, as are other welfare-to-work job training and support services programs statewide.

Open DOHR - Developing Opportunities in Human Resources - gets most of its money from the Jobs First Employment Services program, which received $18 million in state funds in 2008. Gov. M. Jodi Rell cut $3 million off the program in her first budget proposal. In the second round, Jobs First was completely eliminated.

"That was a very surreal telephone call I received earlier this week," said Robin Jay Bage, executive director of the Women & Families Center. "It seems to fly in the face of the needs of this community and this country. Instead of getting some help getting a job ... now they have no options."

Jobs First funds programs such as Open DOHR that provide job coaching, evaluation and links to training centers. The program provides education, child care and transportation to and from job sites.

"It also helps support the 21 career centers in the state," said William Villano, executive director of the Workforce Alliance, the agency contracted by the state Department of Labor to run the centers and training programs.

"They have to take action in the next two weeks or everything shuts down. I have money through June 30. Right now, we have 400 people that are in one of those activities or another. And that will end. Day care will end, transportation. Their skill training will end, academics, job readiness, all that will end."

Villano said without funding, he's likely going to have to close two of the four CT Works Career Centers in Middlesex and New Haven counties.

The state funding is separate from the $70 million in federal job training and stimulus funding. The idea behind the stimulus is to double the job training capacity of the system over and above all the existing funds that come into the program. It is not to be spent on staff and infrastructure expenses to keep the centers going.

"Services to thousands of people are going to end," Villano said.

Jobs First also helps subsidize salaries for workers who receive on-the-job training. If the employers have to pay the whole cost of wages, it's likely the employee will be let go, he said.

Jobs First returns $3.32 for every dollar spent, Villano said. Working adults pay taxes, don't need as much in food stamps and other monthly benefits and have a tool for advancement.

"Most people in the Jobs First program have little attachment to the workforce," Villano said. "It helps them initially."

Of 2,500 people who go through orientations, 1,800 receive services, 350 get training and just under 500 get placements.

Rell's budget also cut the Opportunities Industrialization Centers Inc. in Waterbury, which directly provides skill training in a variety of certificate programs.

Representatives from the governor's office and the Office of Policy Management did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.

Villano and representatives from the state's five regional workforce investment boards are taking to lawmakers their case that the consequences of losing this program would be devastating to the population it serves.

"It's a wrong move," said House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden. "We see job training as an important part of the recovery. They need the help now more than ever."

Donovan said the General Assembly will take up the matter when it meets Friday to release some or all of $50 million in federal funds for youth employment and laid-off adults. The General Assembly ended its legislative session last week without agreeing on a state budget and lawmakers are still sniping.

"It's a budget issue," Donovan said. "Those cuts are not in the Democrat's budget, they're in Jodi's budget."

mgodin@record-journal.com

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