Faces of Workforce

When Desiman Miller first entered the East Mesa Reentry Facility, he promised himself he’d make the most of his time there. He enrolled in over 25 classes and spent his free time reading books focused on learning new skills and

Marcia Knabe had a background in corrections, but wanted to do less physically demanding work. She came to the East County Career Center, an America’ Job Center of California (AJCC) site, determined to continue working but in a less physical

In some ways, Andrea is like many other high school students; she enjoys going to the movies with friends and works at a restaurant in her spare time. In other ways, she is very much unlike many of her peers.

Jonathan King was unemployed when he joined the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Career Center at the downtown library — one in a network of America’s Job Center of California (AJCC) sites — in August 2014. He had been laid

Situated behind another outlet mall next to the fence separating the United States and Mexico, the new San Diego Outlets at the Border (opened October 2014) is not immediately obvious from the main road. Once you find it, however, you

In 1999, Andrew S. Colunga retired from the U.S. Marine Corps after 22 years of service. His aviation background landed him a job at Boeing, but when the three-hour commute back and forth to Long Beach became too much, Colunga

Michael Cerdinio was a participant in SDWP’s CONNECT2Careers (C2C) youth employment program. Through C2C he was placed in an internship with Buster Biofuels, a green energy company that creates Green Initiatives for restaurants in San Diego by reclaiming their used

When the Burmese Army began making life difficult for his and nearby villages, Lian Thang knew he had to flee for his safety. In 2008, when Lian was 14, he left his home in Chin State in western Burma and

Chante Yuban Brookins was working as a preschool teacher when she lost her job. For the next two months, she took on the odd cleaning or babysitting job. For the rest of the following year Chante did not have luck

Ashley Rodriguez could have been a statistic. Using drugs between 13 and 15, she dropped out of school in 10th grade and became a single parent at 16.  Instead, two years later she joined Pathways to Success (P2S) — funded