Paving Access Trails for Higher Security (PATHS) is a 16-week highly integrated comprehensive job training and literacy program developed for Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) customers by the D.C. Department of Human Services/Income Maintenance Administration (DHS/IMA) and the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) School of Business and Public Administration (SBPA). The PATHS Workplace and Family Literacy Program is designed to emphasize key competencies that TANF customers must demonstrate in order to achieve self-sufficiency. These key competencies include satisfactorily performing workplace duties, achieving academic goals, and meeting family needs and responsibilities. The PATHS program offers students a unique, sixteen-week job skills experience - eight weeks of intensive instruction in workplace-oriented math and English followed by an eight-week career-specific internship program. The PATHS program emphasizes job skill development areas that are projected to experience the greatest increase in job growth in the D.C. metropolitan area (according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook projections of job growth through 2006). Upon completion of the PATHS program, students are eligible to apply for the PATHS small starter/bridge scholarships that can be used for GED prep, college courses, or continuing education classes at UDC. These scholarships are intended to ensure continuity of support for student efforts by covering the short transitional period that occurs when students apply for benefits under the TAPIT scholarship program and when benefits actually start. In keeping with best practices in welfare-to-work initiatives and findings from wage and progression studies, an integrated, competency-based curriculum forms the core of the PATHS program. Find out more about our key components of our program.
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