Local Nonprofit Halts Job Assistance Programs

With a lack of funding and declines in state spending for welfare programs, a local nonprofit that serves the low-income and unemployed is temporarily halting its job assistance programs.

Asians For Job Opportunities in the Bay Area, which has served the community since 1974, recently shut down its bilingual social services and job placement services, and will also cut its only remaining class-Vocational English as a Second Language-after this month.

A steady decline in funding from donors over the years, along with the state's 2008-09 budget cuts to welfare programs, has led the agency to temporarily stop services in order to retool, said Tony Leong, executive director of Asians For Job Opportunities.

The governor cut nearly $90 million from the state budget for CalWORKS, a welfare program that helped fund Asians For Job Opportunities.

"The future looks pretty bleak to get training programs to provide ESL, computer training and the rest of that because there's no funds out there," Leong said.

The agency has provided services to non-English and limited English speaking community members and immigrants from all over the world. Services were free for all residents.

The non-profit agency has trained more than 7,000 people for jobs through its Vocational English as a Second Language classes, and helped more than 2,000 people find jobs.

Some lament the cut in programs, which have opened job opportunities to people of different ethnic backgrounds.

"It's a shame when our community loses an excellent service, especially since we have such a diverse population that speaks so many languages," said Deborah Badhia, executive director of the Downtown Berkeley Association. "We need it, it's a loss."

Although the agency will be halting its services, Delfina Geiken, employment programs administrator for the city of Berkeley, said there are still many state and federal-funded programs for the middle-aged, such as veteran benefits and senior employment.

Berkeley also has an adult school and city college that helps people with job training, Geiken said.

But Mansour Id-Deen, executive director of Inter-City Services, another job training nonprofit in Berkeley, said funding for his agency has been harder to come by as government funding seems to be going to programs that target specific groups.

"We've seen that over the years, there is lots of funding for youth, there's lots of funding for homeless and disabled, but for the (broad) population we serve, there seems to not be as much," Id-Deen said.

Leong said the agency is not permanently closing and is working to meet future financial challenges.

"It's a change of direction," he said. "We still want to offer some training service in some way-we don't want to be perceived as closed. That won't help the community."

Tags: JOB SERVICES