How come in new york people who have been on welfare for years only had an oppurtunity to get off?

when a republican,"Rudy Gulianni" started welfare to workfare program, it gave families on welfare a chance at city jobs if they wanted them, 3 families on my block got off welfare from that, we ghad democrat mayors for years and never put that in to help people, my question is why do people connect democrats as being for the poor? Welfare only helps people who cant work, do they think we are not capable of working and getting ahead?