Legal Aid's Partnership with LINCWorks Puts People to Work

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

I’m pleased to announce that that the LINCWorks welfare-to-work program in Kansas City is getting some national recognition as a result of a partnership with Legal Aid of Western Missouri.

Three years ago, LINCWorks was seeing a serious problem with many of the participants in its welfare-to-work program. Many of the participants were fully prepared to secure jobs, but had outstanding city warrants. Most employers won’t hire people who have warrants against them, even for relatively minor offenses, including traffic tickets.

To address the issue, LINCWorks partnered with Legal Aid, so that Legal Aid now provides representation in Municipal Court to resolve the outstanding tickets. Legal Aid’s work on the project is run by Latricia Scott Adams, the Director of Legal Aid’s Volunteer Attorney Project. For the vast majority of the cases, the ticket is resolved with a community service. More importantly, the program has removed a major barrier for hundreds of LINCWorks participants in getting work and, with the barrier gone, many of the participants are now employed.

LINCWorks has been so successful in this and other community partnerships that the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services has chosen LINCWorks as one of just seven welfare-to-work programs nationally to participate in the Promising Pathways initiative. Congratulations to LINCWorks. This is another example of how Legal Aid collaborates with other community organizations to get excellent results for our clients.