Workforce Development

• The Job Resource Center
  
• Training & Work Readiness Programs 
• Youth Services/Employment/Mentoring/Volunteering
  

The Job Resource Center (JRC), has been helping local residents find and keep quality employment since 2000.  Situated in the Family Preservation Center, the JRC serves adults and young people, as well as *disconnected youth by utilizing a network of relationships with local businesses, institutions, and non-profits.  The Center posts weekly job openings and information about up-coming job fairs.   Our staff provides one-on-one counseling and follow-up support, placement and career development for our job search clients.  We offer a variety of workshops for resume building, interview skills, and work-related technology.  Presently, the Center spearheads a variety of certified training programs including Work Readiness, Administrative Assistance, Food Protection and Safety, Hospitality and Culinary Arts, Maintenance and Locksmithing.

Since 1994, the main focus of Youth Services has been to enhance possibilities for young people through providing workforce development and work readiness skills training, along with college exploration. Students receive valuable life skills training and benefits by participating in this program. They are exposed to the nature of positive thinking from the onset. We explore self-esteem issues and come up with creative ways of building self-confidence. We work to increase academic achievement and remove negative stereotypes around obtaining a quality education.  We explore viable career options with our students.  Youth Services also sees the rewards of facilitating inter-generational understanding with the help and involvement of parents or guardians and the importance of examining cultural and ethnic belief systems, ultimately fostering an environment of tolerance. 

Over the past three years, we have been working with the New York State Department of Labor, the NYC Workforce Investment Board and the NYC Human Resources Administration to expand our training programs.  The goal of each training is to provide a certifiable skill set that increases the participant’s employability in a particular career track, preferable a recession proof career.  We include Work Readiness Training as an introduction to the diverse workplace. Our current training tracks are: Custodial Maintenance, Locksmithing, Food Protection and Safety, Hospitality, Security Academy, Health Care, Administrative Assistance and Computer Services.

* Disconnected Youth are young people, typically between the ages of 16 to 24 who are out of school and out of the labor market. In the Bronx, their unemployment rate is at 30%.