In a perfect world, welfare recipients would be able to apply for and access services using a kiosk or personal computer in a public library, welfare office or at home. In the 18 months since the welfare reform mandate, state and county social service agencies have grappled with changing their focus from providing benefits to helping clients search and interview for jobs, providing job training and arranging childcare and transportation. Some jurisdictions have made great strides in the transition from maintaining stovepipe programs and applications -- Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other stand-alone programs -- to becoming seamless social service organizations.

Historically, state departments of labor and social services have been separate agencies. This organizational separation, magnified by different funding sources, maintained the different objectives of the two agencies: one as a job center and another as a benefits provider.

At the same time, job training agencies began to realize that the myriad job training programs created because of different federal programs were expensive and ineffective. This led to a movement to consolidate job training programs with more flexibility for the states and automate many of the manual processes and programs under the jurisdiction of the state departments of labor. This movement spawned federally-funded public kiosks that coordinate federal, state and local government resources. The most successful Welfare to Work programs in the United States coordinate job training, job search and social service programs with this technology.

WISCONSIN LEADS THE WAY

Wisconsin's progress serves as a national model for welfare reform. In its movement from a benefits-oriented organization to one that moves people into the work force, the state reconstituted its public assistance agency, which is now the Department of Workforce Development (DWD). "Most of our efforts focus on automation and local partnerships based on job centers," said Nancy Buckwalter, director of the Office of Information Technology Coordination for DWD.

The state's program -- Wisconsin Works or W-2 -- links TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) with job centers around the state. Local jurisdictions and job centers can customize W-2 to provide information about their own services in addition to the state's JobNet listings. According to Buckwalter, "Anyone can come in and find out what other services are available" at their local job center by using kiosks provided by DWD. JobNet is also available on the Web at .

The approach taken by Wisconsin to combine agencies into a new agency may not be appropriate or necessary for other states. Agency reorganizations are expensive and time-consuming. In a smaller state, like Montana, IT allows the state to create a virtual agency that appears as one to the user of the pavilion.

MONTANA'S VIRTUAL AGENCY

Montana is taking a similar approach as it rolls out its new Virtual Human Services Pavilions, which will allow access to existing human services systems via the Internet. Developed under contract by BDM Technologies, the pavilions will use automation to seamlessly provide services from different agencies and different levels of government.

Montana's goal is to provide a single entry point for recipients and service providers that is easy to access and use and increases client self-sufficiency while improving agency productivity. The virtual pavilions allow for that and more.

When asked whether all clients would find the pavilions easy to use, Mike Billings, director of the Operations and Technology Division for the Department of Public Health and Human Services, noted that, "Welfare participants who are required to work provide assistance to other recipients with the pavilions. They will be trained and working in the welfare offices, helping in the use of the pavilions." Billings added that, the system, which is currently in a pilot program, "eventually will have access stations in 75 welfare offices -- two in each job services