Overview
The Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services offers the Ohio Works First (OWF) program as a means of connecting businesses with employees.
Work Experience Program (WEP) business sponsors who participate in the Ohio Works First program have the opportunity to bring in additional employees that have been prepared and trained to add value to your business.
What is OWF for Franklin County?
As part of the State of Ohio’s Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, OWF is designed to assist participants in obtaining gainful employment. The program emphasizes work as the first step toward building a new life and brighter future. The goal of the program is to help people eliminate the need for public assistance, secure gainful employment, and become self-sufficient through job training, education, and work activities.
How do I get involved?
In order for your business to become a Work Experience Program (WEP) sponsor, contact our office at (614) 212-1888.
WEP sponsors are required to attend an orientation session and complete several forms in order to become part of the OWF program.
Benefits
Here are just a few ways that the Ohio Works First program will benefit you and your company:
- Add workers without adding overhead
- OWF participants are compensated through the program for their work, so if your business is an approved Work Experience Program (WEP) sponsor, you’re not required to pay the participants that you engage through OWF.
- Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services covers the Workers’ Compensation cost of participants working for you through the program.
- Get tax credits for every participant you hire
- The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program enables you to earn federal tax credits of up to $9000 over a two-year period for the participants you hire for full-time jobs.
- Find workers who are ready to work for your company
- Even though many public assistance participants need help and training in order to fill the positions that are available, the goal of Ohio Works First is to prepare participants for new work, while encouraging and assisting businesses in hiring these individuals without displacing existing workers. The large pool of workers within the public assistance system can be recruited and trained to fill many jobs that are currently vacant.
- All OWF participants receive an orientation to the program and an appraisal of their education and employment background.
- OWF participants also receive additional assistance such as medical benefits and childcare.
How it works
Ohio Works First is a work assistance program available through the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services.
In order to provide this program to Franklin county, the Department must gain business participation in the Work Experience Program (WEP). As a business sponsor of the WEP, you have the opportunity to bring in additional help, train them, and have the option of hiring them permanently on a timetable that fits the needs of the business.
Once your business completes registration and orientation, you will be a WEP sponsor and will have the opportunity to start training the program participants for the jobs they will be filling. Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services works to match participants’ skills with job descriptions and positions, so that participants are as prepared as possible when reporting for work.
Program participants in the OWF program come from diverse backgrounds, have a wide variety of skills, and are compensated through OWF for the work they do for your business. Your primary investments are time, training, and working with Franklin County’s Department of Job and Family Services in recording the progress of the participants working for your business.