Helping Mississippi families become self sufficient, that’s the job of the Mississippi Department of Human Services,
“We continue to move toward the holistic approach of helping families move along that pathway to success,” said John Davis, Executive Director of the MS Department of Human Services.
The program is called Generation plus and focuses on empowering people that seek their help to become self sufficient.
“We recognize that individuals who are coming in and seeking assistance at the department of human services probably are in need, or have a barrier in their life that is causing them to need that program,” Davis said.
He said that when someone comes in and qualifies for SNAP benefits, that means that their income is below a certain level and that it is below a livable wage. Davis said that they work with the individuals to help them with their education and their employers.
He added that they also look at the family situation to make sure that others in the household are taken care of as well.
“We are partnering with sister state agencies, as well as, with Families First for Mississippi who get to help families on a community level, so that it is not promulgated from the state down, but from the community up,” Davis said.
He said that MDHS goal for 2018 is to empower people, families, and communities in Mississippi.
“People can find their first job, but what is it to find the second job and the third job that would actually make them self-sufficient and independent,” Davis said. “We are looking for independence. There are very few people that we run into that are seeking to be dependent. They are wanting independence, so how do we help them find that independence? If we want to be the human services of the next century for Mississippians, then we are going to have to look at how to help people move away from the programs, instead of being on the programs.”
Davis said that once they are able to stabilize the home, there would be less need to take children into the state’s custody.
