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Above: Job Services Team members gather for a group picture at
their August unit meeting in Lompoc.
Left to right in front: Xochitl Ibarra, Norma Valdez,
Yolanda Salgado-Tovar, Victoria Arce, Monique Iriarte, Brenda Reyes, AlRay
Grossi, and Peter Sotelo. In rear: Rob Perry, Mark Laurel and
Steve Hernandez.
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Beginning July 3rd, our new county-wide CalWORKs Employment Connection Team (Job Services unit) began offering a Job Club to referred CalWORKs/Welfare-to-Work (CW/WTW) participants and some General Relief (GR) participants — replacing services once offered by the former DSS contractor, ResCare Workforce Services.
What's a Job Club, and how does ours work? Read on to find out.
Job Clubs, sometimes referred to as Networking Clubs, are groups designed so that members can exchange ideas and improve their chances of getting into the job market. They typically include a place to obtain career support, establish a professional career network, obtain job leads, learn about the local labor market needs, get access to job searching tips and tools, as well as a place to receive peer support with the assistance of employment counselors.
Our Job Club is a program requirement for most job-ready CW/WTW participants, as their first activity after WTW Orientation and Appraisal. The ultimate goal of Job Club is to attain a job and new skills to help advance from an entry level job to one that will lead to self-sufficiency and ultimately, discontinuance from welfare assistance.
Our Job Club model is designed with flexibility in mind so that both CW/WTW and GR job seekers can easily enter the four-week long program on any given Monday. The Monday curriculum starts with a small orientation on what to expect while participating in Job Club, and typically ends the day with most participants working on their job resume and “master job application template” that will assist them with filling out the multiple job applications they will be completing as part of their job search.
Over the course of the four-week program, participants are introduced to a variety of curriculum to support their path to self-sufficiency, including job interview preparation, goal-setting, and overcoming multiple barriers to employment such as having a criminal background or a poor employment history, as well as learning about money management and more. Participants completing the entire four-week program are introduced to a total of eight job readiness modules, including information about our own subsidized employment program (JOB$)— however, our early results show many are obtaining jobs before the end of the four-week program.
The CalWORKs Employment Connection team has been busy learning and delivering fun and engaging curriculum during Job Club workshops, and is bringing a high level of energy and enthusiasm to Job Club. We are already receiving very positive feedback from not only program participants, but also from the case-carrying CES staff, who are seeing positive results in those they are case-managing.
Please continue to be on the lookout for future Intercom articles with more about the additional services offered by the CalWORKs Employment Connection Team!