Seton Hill University, in partnership with the United Way of Westmoreland County, will present its spring seminar, “Welfare Reform in Pennsylvania: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,” on Wednesday, April 20. Secretary of Public Welfare Estelle Richman will discuss the effectiveness and future of welfare reform in Pennsylvania. Following her presentation, a panel of local experts will respond, and together with the speaker, field questions from the audience. Panelists include Raymond K. Berquist, executive director of the Westmoreland County Assistance Office, Michael D. Cary, D.A., professor of political science at Seton Hill University, Nancy E. Kukovich, president of United Way in Westmoreland County, and Deborah Skillings, community relations specialist for Gateway Health Plan.

The seminar will address the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which has shifted the responsibility for welfare policy, funding and implementation from the federal government to the states, changing the way Pennsylvania is helping poor, working individuals and families work to achieve financial independence. “Welfare Reform in Pennsylvania: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,” will discuss how the implementation of TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), as the major funder of child care, child welfare and delinquency services, drives policy effecting all Pennsylvanians, not just the poor, and how the state and federal budgets, currently under discussion, include more changes to come.

The program is ideal for employees of public and private human services organizations, policy advocates, private practitioners, faculty and students in social work, sociology, psychology, human services, political science, and other disciplines…and anyone interested in the impact and future of welfare in the reform of Pennsylvania.

“Welfare Reform in Pennsylvania: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,” will be held from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in room 308 of the Administration building on Seton Hill University’s Greensburg, Pa., campus. The cost is $20 per person with an additional $10 charge for social work CEUs. For more information contact David Droppa at (724) 830-1411 or droppa@setonhill.edu.

Seton Hill University, chartered in 1918, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pa. with more than 30 undergraduate programs and 8 graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized by Entrepreneur magazine three times as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named one of the Best Mid-Atlantic Colleges by The Princeton Review and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.