In May of last year, Ohio Means Jobs launched an 18-month program, the Employment Incentives Program, to help transition clients off of public assistance benefits to become self sufficient. Now they have their first graduate of the program, Tyree Graves. "There’s kind of a - what we call the ‘benefit cliff’ keeping people from moving off public assistance or taking those higher paying jobs base on the fact that it was economics," Joe Patton said, executive director of Allen County Job and Family Services. "So we tried to take some of those economics out of it with incentives and Tyree is one of our first graduates out of the program and we’re looking for a lot more to come."

aking the leap to leave your job and finish college to improve your employability is a major step and for one local woman it paid off. Sam Butterfield spent most of her adult life working in the service and retail industry. Last year she decided to take a year off from working to get her bachelor's degree. After graduation, she didn't know what route she should take so she contacted Ohio Means Jobs Allen County. They helped her narrow down her choices and she is now a job coach at Ohio Means Jobs Allen County. She didn't expect to get offered that specific job but says it feels like the right fit.