Ex-Welfare Mother Lives a Dream

Last summer, Lupe Dominguez fulfilled a long-held dream. She took her family to San Diego’s Sea World.

“For other families it may be a simple thing, but for us it was a big treat,” said the 36-year-old single mother of two who just two years ago was struggling to make ends meet on welfare checks and food stamps.

On this Mother’s Day weekend, Dominguez had another big treat. She was named employee of the year at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood where she has been working as a patient service representative since last year.

With much fanfare, an unsuspecting Dominguez was presented with the accolade in front of 500 co-workers Saturday night. The event was held to honor hospital employees, and Dominguez’s 6-year-old son showed up with a bouquet.

“It was a big surprise,” Dominguez said Sunday.

It has been quite a turn of events for the El Salvador native who came to Los Angeles nearly two decades ago and worked at low-paying jobs for years before mounting hospital bills forced her family onto welfare.

As states tackle the daunting task of transferring millions of welfare recipients to the work force, Dominguez represents one example of how lives can be turned around.

Dominguez is a graduate of a 2-year-old program at St. Francis hospital that seeks to wean women off public assistance and into jobs in the health care field.

In partnership with Greater Avenues for Independence, Los Angeles County’s welfare-to-work program, the private, nonprofit hospital has trained 38 women, all of whom have found employment.

“We looked for people who had a desire for self-sufficiency but didn’t have the tools,” said Carol Lee Thorpe, an assistant administrator at St. Francis.

The hospital’s Career Development Program trains candidates with little or no job skills for one year--three months in a classroom setting and up to nine months on the job, and then helps them with job placement at St. Francis or other employers. During their year at St. Francis, the women continue to receive assistance from the county, including subsidized transportation and child care.

At first, there was much uncertainty, Thorpe said. The staff was not sure whether the program would work or if the candidates would adapt to the rigors of the working world.

But now, the staff is very supportive and Dominguez has become an invaluable member, said Nicola Barnes, Dominguez’s supervisor.

“She has an incredible ability to build rapport,” Barnes said.

As a patient service representative, Dominguez, who is bilingual, has been an important liaison to Spanish-speaking patients and their families, who comprise about 80% of people served by the hospital, Barnes said.

Through it all, Dominguez has counted on the support of her family. Her daughter, Veronica, 14, sees a lot of positive changes in her family life.

“It was hard, but we knew it was better for her,” said Veronica, who helped care for her brother Edward while her mother went through the program.

And for Dominguez, who lives with her children in a one-bedroom apartment in Downey, affording more things for her children is a big part of her new life.

“What is normal for me now, I can treat my kids to McDonald’s if they want, or buy them pizza instead of frozen food because it is cheaper,” she said.

That was something she couldn’t do just two years ago. After working for years as a seamstress in garment shops in Los Angeles, sometimes earning as little as $25 per week, Dominguez was forced to go on welfare seven years ago when her son caught recurring pneumonia, and she had to stay home to care for him.

She joined St. Francis’ Career Development Program in 1996 and was employed on March 17 last year. “I will never forget that day,” she said. “It is just like my birthday.”