Panel:  Surveying the Terrain of Human Services Post Welfare Hype

This panel will address changes in the Syracuse human service landscape over the past few years with particular attention to the employment
activities for low-income Syracuse residents and welfare-to-work related funding. It will also examine related issues of balance between social
justice and funding needs and pressures. This is a particularly poignant topic given the recent severe downsizing or closing of many human
services agencies.  Locally employment programs have, by and large been add-on programs, not core programs and have been the first to go as
funding dried up. A lot of innovation was developed around the wtw/employment issue by local non profits when funding was available thanks to welfare reform. Most of this innovation is sitting idle now. Our intent is to gather members of the community that are/were involved in these endeavors and combine that with academic interest.