Praise for Faith-Based Initiatives

"Ohio Woman's Success Rates Praise from Bush"
http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=1913
WASHINGTON -- Standing in the ornate East Room of the White House, her family and the president of the United States alongside, Mifflin Township resident Pamela Hedrick proclaimed herself proof positive that welfare recipients can forge more productive lives.

Brought to the White House as part of a push yesterday by President Bush for his welfare-reform and faith-based initiatives, Hedrick credited a Columbus program -- the Enrichment Association of Community Healing on the East Side -- with helping move her from public assistance to the workplace.

"I'm here today because it works,'' said Hedrick, 35, who took her last welfare check in 1997 and a year and a half ago became an administrative assistant in Ohio first lady Hope Taft's office. "If it wasn't for the faith-based community program, I wouldn't be here.''
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While I maintain that the constitutionality of Faith Based Initiatives and the separation of Church and State is pretty questionable on this issue, it is good to see how the programs have helped people. It was definitely a positive experience for this Ohio woman who earned a pretty cool secretary position for the Governor's wife in Ohio. I can foresee praise in his efforts in getting people off welfare and finding more meaning in having a productive lifestyle and job. It is also the recognition that one needs to do something more than claim that people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. This program seems to provide the motivation to get a pair of boots, or however you want to continue the metaphor.

While there is questionability for encouraging religion in the process of getting help with federal funding, it is clear that they have helped some people. Obama even agreed to continue some sort of faith-based initiative programs. While he has included a few changes in the program, the basic premise to the initiative remains--so this is a clear potential for a positive legacy of Bush.