Updates Week of June 20, 2022

The Southeast Los Angeles WorkSource Center (WSC) connected 17 military veterans, 11 of whom were homeless, with a training opportunity to become low voltage installation technicians in the Audio Visual (AV) industry. 

The center, managed by EWDD contractor the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC), recently partnered with Career Expansion, Inc (CEI), the California Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) and the Southbay Workforce Board (SBWIB) to successfully conduct the  low voltage installation technician training course.

CEI was approached by AV company Avidex to develop and deliver a comprehensive pilot program to teach participants the essential skills to become technicians. Following the 151-hour, four-week training program, participants also received a certification demonstrating their qualifications to work in the AV industry. 

Avidex is a premier installer of AV systems in school districts throughout Southern California and they expressed a significant labor market need to have a trained pool of technicians available. The positions typically pay an average of $30 per hour.

One of the focuses of the initial pilot program was to primarily extend these training opportunities to military veterans. Avidex began screening candidates in March 2022. After the screening interviews, 26 candidates were selected for the program, of which 17 of the group were military veterans, 11 of which were homeless veterans that were being housed at the Cabrillo Village Veteran Center in Long Beach, CA.

Funding for the pilot course was provided by DOR, WLCAC and the SBWIB. DOR covered tuition costs while WLCAC and SBWIB funded the supportive services for the program, including transportation fees and tools for employment. 

All 26 participants graduated from the training program. Nine were offered intent to hire letters issued by Avidex and the remainder are aligned to interview with Audio Visual Contractor AVI-SPL.

EWDD provides job training opportunities free of charge to all Angelenos. Veterans and their family members receive priority when requesting services.

To learn more, please visit bit.ly/EWDDWorkSource. 

EWDD is a leadership team partner of LA:RISE, an innovative, collaborative partnership that unites the City and County of Los Angeles’ Workforce Development System with non-profit social enterprises and for-profit employers to help people with high barriers to employment get good jobs and stay employed. In this week’s EWDD Updates, we share a success story featuring Alexandria, who was able to pursue a new career with job training from the Downtown Women’s Center. 

“My name is Alexandria and I'm from a little town in Texas called Texarkana.  I have always dreamed of moving to Los Angeles and being a bartender. Once all of my children moved out of the house to pursue their dreams I decided to pursue my own.” 

She gathered her belongings and her little bit of savings, then took a bus to LA. She arrived on December 14, 2019. “I was so excited because the next day was my birthday, and I was in the city of my dreams.” 

As soon as she got off the bus, two pieces of her luggage were stolen while she was in the bathroom. “I had only been in LA. a few minutes and I was already robbed. I never caught the thief, but I did not let that get me down.”

Alexandria checked into a bed and breakfast and learned how to navigate her way around LA. Her job search did not go as well as she hoped, due to the holidays. Then she lost her wallet. 

“I had no ID, no debit card and little money left and there was news of a virus spreading across the world. I did not know what to do. I started asking around and no one would talk to me or stop and try to hear what I was talking about, until one woman on the bus told me to go downtown. As soon as I stepped off the bus, the first person that I saw and asked for help stopped and helped me. I know a lot of people talk about Skid Row being a scary and dangerous place, and it can be sometimes, but it is way more than that. It is a community of people who genuinely care about each other. The Skid Row community embraced me and took me in when no one else would help. I went from sleeping on floors in different SROs to sleeping in a tent for about a month when a man named Mr. Lowell came by and struck up a conversation with me.

He worked with LAHSA, and he enrolled me in Project Room Key, and I was in a hotel the next day. My prayers had been answered! All I needed was a chance and an opportunity and I was going to make the best of it. I stayed in a hotel for eight months and while I was staying there, I signed up for employment services.” 

Alexandria received a call from a WorkSource Center and she was connected with the LA:RISE program. She received help obtaining a new ID and developing her resume. Through LA:RISE, she received paid job training through the Downtown Women’s Center (DWC), where she now works full-time. Her new job offers health care benefits, which she never had when she was a bartender. 

“I was so excited and thrilled for the opportunity. I completed the LA:RISE program which I will forever be grateful for because it turned this 6-year Air Force veteran and 20-year bartender into a candle maker, and I love it!"

Since graduating from LA:RISE, Alexandria has been interviewed by Spectrum News, Gifts for Goods with NBC4, and a radio station. She was also recently featured on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard for MADE (the Downtown Women’s Center production studio). 

“I love working with and for the Downtown Women's Center, and I still get to help women who are just like me. Also, I get to help the wonderful Skid Row Community who were so generous to me when everyone else looked away. The Downtown Women's Center will forever be in my prayers because when I was ready to give up and go back home, they helped me stay to continue living my dreams.”

To learn more about LA:RISE, click here. To learn more about job training programs offered at EWDD’s WorkSource Centers, visit bit.ly/EWDDWorkSource.