Tec Centro & SACA on the forefront of employment needs

Last week, we shared with you a story of one of our recent graduates, a medical assistant working for a local healthcare provider. She was so thrilled to enter the medical field and honored to share her path to a career with you. Unfortunately, the day after my letter appeared her hours were drastically reduced.   This is a common story for many. However, Latinos are losing work and wages due to COVID-19 at a higher rate than others, while also remaining at a higher risk of exposure to the disease than non-Latinos.

Tec Centro is primarily a second chance system for many people. One of the strengths of Tec Centro is that you can come back to the platform and get help over and over again. We are continuously improving our graduates and through them, our community. In fact, many clients come back for more services as their skill level improves and use our services several times. Take the students who come first for ESL courses, then we get them a job, and eventually, they come back for training for a higher paying, more fulfilling job. This is what we do.  In the months ahead, we anticipate many in the community will need our services more than ever before.

As business and community leaders, we want you to know that we are here to be your partner and resource. Our doors may physically be closed now to the public, but our services continue with the same passion, vigor, and commitment as always. We have just moved to a virtual platform for communication and engagement. Last week, we hosted a town hall meeting to engage our business community in dialogue; asking them how we can best meet their needs as our community transitions from red to yellow and then to green. We were excited to hear about career opportunities at your organizations.

We consider all of you to be a part of the SACA family, and we believe we are all working to overcome this crisis together. At this time, we need your donations and support more than ever before. The Latino community has been one of the communities hit hardest by COVID-19, and Tec Centro is one of few organizations geared directly toward their specific needs at this time. If you can, we encourage you to donate to SACA and Tec Centro or to see if there are placement options at your organizations for recent Tec Centro graduates. As always, do not hesitate to contact me if we can help in any way.