Laid-off workers get more help

Mathis Winkler

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2001 | 8:51 a.m.

The Henderson Project Helping Hand center will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until Oct. 30. It will be closed Oct. 26 for Nevada Day. Appointment reservations are recommended. Call 735-1090. The center is next to Green Valley High School near the corner of Warm Springs Road and Arroyo Grande Boulevard.

The Culinary Union's Helping Hand center is at 1630 S. Commerce St. and offer help Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., until at least Oct. 19.

A week after the Culinary Union opened a support center to help workers laid off after the terrorist attacks, three gaming companies have followed suit by opening a second center in Henderson.

The center will mirror the union's one-stop help fair in Las Vegas, where people can receive rental assistance and food stamps, work out payment plans for their utility bills and meet with job placement agency representatives.

A few things are different, though. The union's center works on a first-come, first-served basis while the Henderson location requires that appointments be made over the phone.

People can file unemployment claims at the Las Vegas location. In Henderson, state officials will provide information about unemployment claims, but people will still have to phone in their claims.

Also, the new Project Helping Hand facility will offer free child care, allow people to create resumes and offer credit counseling.

To help staff the Henderson center, Boyd Gaming Corp., MGM MIRAGE and Park Place Entertainment Corp., have each freed up 10 employees to work at the center during the next three weeks. The employees, many of whom work in the companies' recruitment offices, will assist welfare professionals, as well as those who work for charitable organizations.

The Community College of Southern Nevada has donated space at its new Henderson tech center, and the companies will assume costs of running the area's second Project Helping Hand facility. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce has donated its phone bank to handle appointment reservations.

Although the Henderson location will be open to all workers who have lost their jobs since the Sept. 11 attacks, center organizers said they expected to focus on helping people who do not qualify for welfare assistance.

"There are a lot of people (without jobs) who are not directly eligible for social services," said Punam Mathur, MGM MIRAGE vice president for community affairs. Mathur will manage the center during the first few days of operation.

Many people received severance packages and don't yet qualify for unemployment. Others don't qualify for rental assistance as homeowners, Mathur said, adding that, at the Henderson center, credit counselors will offer advice on managing mortgage payments and other bills.

At the same time, casino employees received a crash course in reviewing people's needs and received their work assignments, which range from welcoming people to supporting state welfare officers to overseeing the parking lot.