Getting It Together

On one floor, you can get an assessment of your work skills. On another, counselors will help you with job training. And on another, you can file for unemployment benefits, then use the computers, phones, job postings and even borrow the office wardrobe to look for new work.

Welcome to the Santa Ana Work Center, an experiment aimed at easing the often arduous journey of workers who have lost their jobs or are looking to change careers.

The center, in Santa Ana’s rail and bus station building, is one of a growing number of so-called “one-stop” career centers that are sprouting nationwide.

The concept is simple: eliminate overlapping employment services and combine them with other social and educational agencies under one roof.

The Santa Ana Work Center, which opened earlier this year, is run by a staff of 30 from the state Employment Development Department (unemployment claims), Orange County Social Services Agency (welfare work programs), the city of Santa Ana (job training and enterprise zone benefits) and Rancho Santiago College (career and skill assessment).

The center “links and breaks down turf issues,” said Patricia Nunn, the facility’s director and one of its founders. Nunn said more than 200 people already have visited the center.

Among them is Chuck Johnston, 38, who last week combed through job postings and used the telephones and fax machine to make contacts with potential employers.

Johnston, a graphic artist who lives in Santa Ana, said he used to go to downtown Santa Ana for help with job training and then to another office a few miles away for unemployment benefits. Now he can take care of both matters in one place--and with less paperwork.

“They make a difference,” Johnston said, adding that for the unemployed, every little bit helps.

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The Santa Ana Work Center is the latest one-stop career office to open in Southern California. Experts said San Diego already has a network of such centers, and there are similar operations in Long Beach, Anaheim and Cerritos, although some of them are intended mainly to help laid-off aerospace workers. The Santa Ana center is open to the general public.

Paul Amorino, director of occupational education at Rancho Santiago College, believes one-stop career centers are the wave of the future. What’s driving them, he said, are shrinking job-training dollars as well as governments’ push to slim down.

“It will probably be the least costly way of servicing the client and helping them to get to where they want quickly,” said Amorino, whose school has sent a staff of five skill assessors to the Santa Ana Work Center.

Amorino, Nunn and others have been planning Santa Ana’s one-stop center for more than a year, and it took them several months to scrape together money and other donations from both the public and private sectors.

The center’s desks and chairs were donated largely by the state Employment Development Department. Staff workers rounded up four old computers, and local businesses agreed to pay for staff business cards and the subscriptions for a few newspapers. Others have dropped off business suits that applicants can wear for job interviews, and a nearby dry-cleaner has offered to keep those suits clean.

The center’s future is uncertain. Its success will depend on how much it is used by workers and employers, and whether it gets continued support from public agencies and private enterprises. At the moment, counselors and staff workers are trying to get more personal computers, a telephone voice mail system, a copy machine and staffers who can speak languages such as Vietnamese.

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr., who toured the center last week, thinks there’ll be no shortage of users. Joblessness in Santa Ana--a city of more than 300,000--has typically been about double the county’s 5% unemployment rate.

Pulido believes the job center also will help the city maintain and attract employers. “Hey, what company isn’t going to take advantage of a pre-screened person to hire?” he said, referring to one of the services available to employers.

Also housed in the work center is an office of Santa Ana’s enterprise zone, a program that enables businesses operating in a designated area of the city to get state tax credits for expanding and hiring.

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Cindy Andrade, office manager at Riviera Bakery in Santa Ana, said she already has used the work center to recruit 15 employees, mainly for kitchen jobs paying $4.50 to $5 an hour to start.

“I think it’s a great idea having everything located centrally,” Andrade said.

Diane Peters, 41, a weight-loss counselor in Huntington Beach who is considering a change in careers, says she is using the center to get help with her resume, learn job interviewing techniques and develop new word-processing skills.

“The resources are wonderful,” she said.

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One Stop to Work-Shop

Santa Ana’s Work Center houses a variety of agencies and services for those looking for work:

Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday

Telephone: (714) 565-2600

Agencies: The state Employment Development Department and Orange County Social Services Agency have offices for unemployment insurance claims and welfare work programs.

Services: Rancho Santiago College and Santa Ana offer job postings, career counseling and workshops on resume writing, job hunting and interviewing skills. Also available are computers, telephones, fax machines and clothing suitable for job interviews.

Clients: 195 during first week of operation

Source: Santa Ana Work Center