East Palo Alto’s JobTrain celebrates 60 years

Despite migrating to the United States as a university teacher and journalist, Christopher Luna felt “so lost” when he arrived, he said. 

As someone with a background in communications, not being able to speak English was all the more difficult, Luna said — until he entered a JobTrain career center in South San Francisco. With the help of its staff, he was able to begin learning English and eventually began working for the nonprofit.  

His journey, migrating to the United States and receiving assistance from JobTrain, allows him to empathize with the people he works with today, as an employment services specialist in the North Fair Oaks JobTrain career center. 

“I can see myself in every person I work with,” said Luna, who is fully booked every day, consulting with residents who are seeking employment. 

But his experience is not rare; In fact, it’s common enough that JobTrain has a name for the people it hires through its assistance – “homegrown tomatoes.”

JobTrain, a career development organization that began in East Palo Alto and has expanded across the Bay Area, celebrated 60 years of service at a fundraising event on the morning of April 30. 

JobTrain’s philosophy is to directly connect people who are unemployed or looking to change their career paths with local businesses and professionals, in order to learn about a trade, then find a job. In 1965, East Palo Alto Pastor John Sweeny adopted the idea from a Philadelphia reverend who called it a “win-win” for industries in need of workers and people in need of work. 

And 60 years later, the model has served Peninsula residents well, including those who don’t have high school diplomas as well as those with advanced college degrees. The program has expanded from East Palo Alto into Menlo Park, Redwood City, South San Francisco, San Jose and Half Moon Bay, along with various training opportunities throughout the Bay Area. 

JobTrain offers resume assistance, job search help, employment training, career exploration and general supportive services that could range from helping people get business licenses or even actions as seemingly simple as using Google maps for directions, Luna said. 

The main Menlo Park locations serve as JobTrain’s headquarters, offering regular training pathways that ebb and flow with the job market. Most recently, JobTrain added property management to its program offerings in an effort to connect more residents to the local affordable housing industry; The program was so popular that officials asked JobTrain to provide the service in Oakland. 

The program specifically targets people living in unstable housing conditions, Barrie Hathaway, JobTrain CEO said in an interview with this publication. That way, he said, they can learn the skills they need to find housing then help others in the future. 

“Their lived experience is so helpful in that job, that employers want to hire somebody with lived experience,” Hathaway said. 

Currently, JobTrain also offers construction, HVAC, nursing, technology and culinary training pathways among others. Although as the demand for the nonprofit’s services increases, so does its need for more physical space to accommodate residents, which have manifested in the form of “career centers.”

JobTrain’s Menlo Park location, an economic and employment center, serves as its main training base, but “career centers” act as starting points for people interested in assistance. The career center in North Fair Oaks is JobTrain’s newest location, built approximately eight months ago. 

Those who enter the building may mistake it for a community center rather than an office. With a large open space in the main room, residents mingle with staff. There is a kitchenette and play spaces for children. 

The center often serves as “more than just a career center,” said Esmeralda Cerrato, a regional director with JobTrain and “homegrown tomato.”

“People who don’t have jobs often face other barriers, whether that be access to a hot plate of food or housing challenges,” she said, as she walked through the building. “Here, we provide those wraparound services.”

In fact, she and her colleagues even take turns entertaining the children of people who come in for services, Cerrato said. 

In a part of Redwood City dubbed “little Michoacan,” for its high number of residents from the Mexican state, she said people feel comfortable seeking assistance at the center, even under a current federal administration that has targeted immigrant communities. 

Many Redwood City residents specifically are interested in continuing their own trades, in construction, jewelry-making or house-cleaning among others, which is why the location has a partnership with Renaissance, a local nonprofit that helps people create their own businesses. To further support that work, the center also hosts career fairs that interview on the spot and pop-up shops, like its upcoming “mama bonita” event, a Mother’s Day marketplace where residents will sell handmade items on May 8 and 9 at the Redwood City JobTrain office. 

Oftentimes, the JobTrain will partner with organizations in order to garner more funding for its services. For example, the California Employment Development Department has partnered with the nonprofit in the past and may continue as JobTrain eyes expansion. 

Currently, JobTrain is looking to build a new, even larger, headquarters in East Palo Alto, which has already been approved by the city council.

While the future is not completely set in stone, CEO Hathaway sees regional expansion in the future. He also promises to remain frugal and create a “strong foundation,” he said. 

“We are in conversations about moving to the East Bay in a more robust way,” Hathaway said. “We’d also like to see our programs in more areas in Santa Clara County, and I think for the next three years, which is the duration of our current strategic plan, that’s where we’re going to focus our energies.”

Aside from its strategic plan, Hathaway called JobTrain a “heart-centered” service that looks to expand where it’s needed. 

“We have to believe in the people that come to us,” Hathaway said. “We have to have respect for them. We have to understand their value. We have to move without judgment. I don’t care where you’ve been, let’s get you to where you want to be.”