Situation Critical - Partners Needed in Napa

Where did our workforce system partners go? What happended to the education and training linkages that were so critical to delivering skilled workers for businesses? What happened to the once proud training and employment center that was called upon to open an office in Mare Island to assist with the closure? How can there not be an Employment Development Department (EDD) office in Napa?

We have 5000 +- businesses here, a population approaching 150,000, demographics that show us as more diverse than the State as a whole, with a quickly increasing immigrant population; and employment growth that has turned a once sleepy(er)bedroom community on its head in less than 10 years consequently making Napa a net importer of jobs. With the rapid changes happening in Napa, it is time to reconstruct the Napa workforce development system and to truly deliver the services that our residents and businesses need.

When EDD, the County and Napa Unified (Adult School) were working together, we were part of a core team of partners that served as a national model for one-stop service delivery and partnership. In fact, the Congress of the United States itself, called on Napa's Executive Director for testimony regarding the development of new workforce legislation that would soon become known as the Workforce Investment Act. Where did it all go?

Certainly, it is not the fault of any one partner in particular. The County and the Napa Adult School - the other two legs of the proverbial three-legged stool also made some significant changes. Specifically, the Adult School choose to move in with its educational parents at the Napa Education Center on Jefferson Street and the County moved its Training and Employment Center and CalWorks staff to a building on Soscol. Surely, there were good reasons, for these moves and the pull-out of EDD altogether. But were those "good" reasons, good enough to justify what amounted to a significant destruction of the Napa workforce delivery system?

When these three entities worked together at a common site, known as Ridgeview, Napa had a true "skills" center. It was a place where many people came to get jobs and get job skill upgrades. We had the system down. At the front desk, there was, what amounted to a "universal screener" that greeted everyone. This person, was courteous, understood customer flow, and effectively guided people to the right services. We had an integrated career center that was well staffed and serviced by all core partners. We had a number of language acquisition classes on site, computer training, job clubs, GED instruction, and a host of other training classes on site. We even had child and adult care resources available for clients when they were in training. Of course, Napa had its typical one-stop familial issues, but WoW, all in all, it was a great place to access training, education and whole host of support services that moved people into the world of work and up their career ladders.

We have to get it back....and, I think we can. In my mind, there is a window of opportunity open, right now, that can make us greater than we ever were. The present day One-Stop is housed on what can best be described as a campus. It is in, probably one of the best locations, in the County for such an operation, given its address on a main arterial roadway in the City with plenty of parking and regular public transportation frequency from all areas of the County. Within this campus there are other non-profit agencies that call the campus home, an executive recruiter, an immigration and naturalization consultant/counselor, a foster care program, a tutoring center, plenty of vacant space that could serve as classrooms for our education partners, a low cost everything store, also known as Walmart, where you can be appropriately dressed for a job interview for under $20.00 and most important...a newly renovated professional office building that is...seismically safe!

The reason that EDD gave when they moved out of the County to begin with was that they couldn't find a seismically safe building in Napa in which to operate. Poof! there went all of EDD's job services staff, all their employment and business resources, our joint efforts at serving the employer customer, and roughly1/2 of the 2000+ job candidates that were walking through the One-Stop's doors looking for work and help getting work. I don't think I need to go into what that meant for the small business economy that was expanding its job growth at the very same time that the workforce delivery system was disintegrating.

There really is a perfect storm of opportunity that I hope we can harness. It starts with getting EDD back as the good friend it once was. I think we are on the right track. I have been speaking with EDD managers and policy makers about recommitting to Napa. While I have been encouraged by all of these discussions, I am tempered by a clear understanding of the current workforce environment, which has been under attack for several years. For instance, EDD's Workforce Services Branch was recently hit hard by a $12 million cut to their job services program, this in addition to the fact that California's workforce system has been dealing with an approximate 40% cut from the US Department of Labor over the last few years. Certainly, I can feel the pain of these cuts at the State level and its impact on us at the local level, but there must be a solution for Napa other than the continued depletion of our ability to serve our community's workforce needs.

The right thing to do for this community and the employers, students and job seekers in it, is to get EDD, the Napa education system, our many community based organizations, and the County back together and to start rebuilding a once proud system that is more needed now than at any time in the past. I'm not sure how this is going to happen...but I think it starts with commitment and leadership from many people!