SOLUTIONS
opment organizations go by Arizona@Work to help clients identify where they can find assistance.
In Yuma County, YPIC has taken on that role, with its board providing oversight for Arizona@ WorkYuma County. However, Ray stressed, it’s a collaboration of many partners working together. The Businesses Services Team also includes Achieve Human Services, Adult Literacy Plus, Arizona Western College, Employment Service, Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation, Housing Authority of the City of Yuma, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Yuma Proving Ground, Portable Practical Educational Preparation, Quechan Workforce Development, Southwest Technical Education District of Yuma, Veterans Services and Vocational Rehabilitation Services. A number of other organizations and agencies are partners as well.
“All the same free services are still available, there’s just a new name and more services,” said Ray. “We want employers to get great employees and employees to get great jobs. If we all work together we can make that happen. We just want to get community members in Yuma County hired. It doesn’t matter who works with them.”
Core Partner programs under WIOA include:
• Title I: Adult, Dislo- cated Worker and Youth Services
• Title II: Adult Education Services
• Title III: Wagner-Peyser Employment Services
• Title IV: Vocational Rehabilitation Services.
The Core Partner programs work together in the One Stop Delivery System to coordinate services, refer clients to the right services to meet their individual needs and work collaboratively to ensure that services aren’t duplicated.
Title I services are offered at the One Stop Center, which is still located on the YPIC campus at 3826 W. 16th St., but is now called the Yuma Career Center and is contracted out to ResCare to operate. Other Title I sites in Yuma County include the Martin Luther King Youth Career Center at 300 S. 13th Ave.; and Employment Service at 1185 S. Redondo Center Drive. They’re all identified as Arizona@WorkYuma County
When job seekers come to one of the centers, they go through orientation to determine what they want or need and are made aware of available resources, Ray. They can receive job search assistance or job training. Or if they have other needs, such as rehabilitation or adult education, they’re referred to the appropriate agency.
“We’re just trying to make it easier for people to identify and find the services they need,” Ray said. “They can come to one location and have access to all the services.”
Arizona@Work-Yuma County also assists employers by posting job orders and making referrals to their job openings. That job bank is shared with the partners who may be working with their own clientele, such as Goodwill, MCAS and YPG. And Rapid Response continues to be offered, working with companies that are either laying off people or closing and the employees who are impacted.
The organization also continues to provide workshops on filling out applications, resume writing, interview skills and dress for success. And if it’s determined that a person needs additional job skills, perhaps to pursue a new direction in the workforce, Arizona@WorkYuma County can provide assistance.
“If a person is hired, we can offset the cost of their salary by 50 percent while they complete training,” Ray said. “Or if they need a whole new set of skills, we will pay 100 percent of their salary while they do an internship. If they have no skills and need work training, we will pay for that, such as medical assistant training or truck driving.”
In addition, Arizona@ WorkYuma County will pay for someone to complete a variety of short-term certification programs offered by AWC, such as learning computer skills, industrial technology, automotive repair or welding.
Arizona@Work-Yuma County receives $4.5 million a year in federal workforce development funds that pays for the Title I services so they can be provided at no charge to clients.
With the area’s chronic high unemployment, “Arizona@WorkYuma County is extremely important” in assisting employers and job seekers, Ray said.
She noted that Yuma County’s jobless rate tends to be around 19 percent in the winter and 25 percent or higher in the summer. “We always go back and forth with it because of the way it is figured. But Arizona’s rural areas tend to be higher.”
Ray does believe, though, that the local economy has been improving. “GYEDC is doing a great job in attracting new companies. However, many jobs require specific skills so people need to seek help,” if not from Arizona@Work, perhaps Regional Center for Border Health or AWC.
Nationwide, more than 13 million Americans — roughly one out of every 12.5 people in the U.S. labor force — got the help they needed through the American Job Center network. In Yuma County, there is a high rate of success of people finding permanent jobs after receiving job training, perhaps where they trained. “The employer sees their value,” Ray said, “or it makes them easier to place.”