Tommy Wheatley, Kentucky Works Director
The Kentucky Works Program supports the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (K-TAP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the following Kentucky counties: Anderson, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Franklin, Grayson, Hardin, Henry, Larue, Marion, Meade, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Trimble, Washington, and Woodford. Our goal is to assess these individuals to identify barriers, work to overcome those barriers to make them self- sufficient. We also have job readiness classes to help with resumes, job search, job interviews, etc.
Covid-19 has had a significant impact on both of our programs over the past couple of years with a state of emergency “Good Cause exemption” where clients were not required to participate in the programs. This good cause exemption ended 7-1-2022 but there were still no sanctions due to non-participation until December 2022 so it has still had an impact. SNAP E & T just ended their state of emergency and starting July 1, 2023 Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents will be mandated to participate in the program again.
· We currently have 34 clients that are employed in the K-TAP Program. This is up 10 from when last reported. Our Employment Specialists continue to follow up with each of these clients and track the hours they are working. We served 57 clients in the K-Tap program for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022.
· On the SNAP Employment and Training program we continue to reach out to these clients and complete assessments when they are referred to us. We served 442 clients for the SNAP program during the last quarter.
· We continue to stay in touch with employers and if we do get referrals we match the clients skills with the employer needs to have a good match. We call new employers each week and keep a current job listing for each county we serve.
· We continue to see an impact with Covid on our Work Experience Program sites as many of them are still unable to accept our referrals. We currently have 67 sites in our 17 counties that we can send our clients to.
· Our staff continues to stay in touch with staff meeting every other month, either in person or virtually to discuss all relative matters in the program.
· We continue to offer a wage subsidy program where if an employer hires one of our K-TAP clients they will be reimbursed for a portion of their wages during the first six month of employment.
· We are under contract for KTAP and SNAP E & T through June 2024.