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for some time. We call it a one-time ombudsman program. The <br /> idea is to assign a volunteer to a person or family that needs <br /> guidance as a particular situation or process is accomplished. An <br /> example of such a need is illustrated by the steps needed to be <br /> taken between the time FRIENDS was given a car and the time the <br /> recipient, a father who with transportation was able to reclaim <br /> his children from foster care, was able to drive away in the car. <br /> Title transfer, insurance, funding for insurance, passing the <br /> written part of the driver' s license test (a frustrating <br /> stumbling block) , were all areas where help was needed. <br /> The second program of exceptional merit has been brought to the <br /> FRIENDS ' Board by your Commission on Women. They have been <br /> gathering the information and are anxious to see implemented a <br /> program that mentors JOBS program clients stepping out into the <br /> professional world by one-on-one matches with professional women. <br /> A program initiated in Boulder, Colorado, has been their model . <br /> Not having staff to support such a program, they turned to us as <br /> an organization that might provide a home for the program. They <br /> did not envision the program related directly to DSS, nor did <br /> they realize that we do nothing except on written request of DSS <br /> staff . The personal relationships established in the Boulder <br /> program, sponsored by the local BPW' and not tied in with social <br /> services, were highly successful , but tended to fall apart when <br /> the larger problems of child care, housing, utilities, health <br /> services, needing to be addressed were beyond the resources <br /> available to the mentors. Through referral by social workers <br /> FRIENDS could supply much of that back-up. Because the <br /> Commission for Women is so anxious to move ahead, we recommended <br /> to those with whom we met, that the Commission work with DSS to <br /> set up a pilot program of only three matches, each of whom could <br /> rely on our support, and that we would include this program <br /> specifically in this request to you for a volunteer coordinator. <br /> Stephen Jay Gould, in a NEW YORKER review of THE BELL CURVE <br /> refers to "the distressing temper of our time -- a historical <br /> moment of unprecedented ungenerosity. . . . How badly social <br /> programs will be slashed in the coming months and years is <br /> unclear, but with your help, the generous communi.ty in Orange <br /> County can be helped to not only counteract new cuts that may be <br /> coming, but to move beyond that help which we have given before. <br />