Worker Advancement | Introduction
Community Jobs
Community Jobs is an innovative public-private partnership serving "hard-to-employ" individuals on TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families). Community Jobs promotes work in the community, skill building and livable wage employment. The program is the only one of its kind in the nation which provides welfare recipients with paychecks for their work in the public and nonprofit sectors, training, intensive case management, and work towards permanent economic self-sufficiency. Community Jobs creates a ladder out of poverty for very low income people.
Community Jobs (CJ) is a program administered by the Washington State Office of Trade & Economic Development (OTED). CJ contracts with private non-profit agencies to offer nine months’ work with local governments or nonprofit organizations, and intensive supportive case management. CJ participants work at least 20 hours per week at the state minimum wage and are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.