Senate Bill No. 135
(By Senators Manchin, Walker and Blatnik)
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[Introduced January 25, 1996; referred to the Committee
on Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend chapter nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article six-a, relating to
creating the living assistance program; recruiting a corps
of senior citizen volunteers; eligibility of families; and
administration of the program by the department of health
and human resources.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto
a new article, designated article six-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6A. LIVING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ACT OF 1996.
§9-6A-1. Short title; purpose.
This article shall be known as and is hereby designated to
be the "Living Assistance Program Act of 1996." The program is
designed to pair senior citizens with families at risk for the purpose of providing training and mentoring in the development of
the life skills.
§9-6A-2. Establishment of the living assistance program.
(a) The secretary of the department of health and human
resources is authorized to establish, develop and implement the
living assistance program. The secretary may hire any additional
personnel necessary to administer the program.
(b) The secretary shall: (1) Develop and maintain a
registry of senior citizens willing to volunteer their time and
services to participate in the living assistance program; (2)
identify families at risk within the eligible populations as
defined in subsection (d) of this section; and (3) develop
program criteria for volunteer and family participation.
(c) The goal of the living assistance program is to train
the senior corps volunteers to mentor the identified families in
developing life skills related to work, consumer skills,
budgeting, health and nutrition, education, literacy, sufficiency
and personal and professional success. Training is to include
information on confidentiality and available resources.
(d) Eligibility for family participation will be limited to
those families receiving some form of public assistance through
programs administered by the department of health and human
resources.
§9-6A-3. Administration of program; screening and training of
volunteers; matching volunteers with families; time
limits for providing service.
(a) The secretary shall develop the criteria and all forms
necessary for program participation. Volunteers shall be limited
to persons who are fifty-five years old or older and shall be
required to submit to a criminal background check and all other
reasonable inquiries. Families receiving assistance through the
department shall be given the option to join the living
assistance program. Present forms may be modified or new forms
designed to elicit information regarding the particular kind of
guidance, instruction or emotional support that the particular
family or individual receiving assistance desires.
(b) The secretary shall provide volunteer training regarding
the administrative process utilized to run the primary public
assistance programs and any further training reasonably related
to providing service as contemplated under this article.
(c) Volunteers shall file monthly reports containing
information regarding their work with the designated family,
including the number of meetings, a brief description of the
topics covered and identified areas for future work.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a Living
Assistance Program in which senior citizens would be paired with families at risk for the purpose of providing training and
mentoring in the development of life skills.
This is a new article; therefore, underscoring and strike-
throughs are omitted.
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