Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Play

Texas lawmakers consider legislation to prevent cities from self-governance, Connecticut considers policy options to alleviate an eviction crisis, and Ohio residents await community water systems.

Play

Gov. Ron DeSantis breaks his silence on Trump's potential indictment and attacks Manhattan prosecutors, President Biden vetoes his first bill to protect socially conscious retirement investing, and the Supreme Court hears a case on Native American water rights.

Play

The 41st state has opted into Medicaid which could be a lifeline for rural hospitals in North Carolina, homelessness barely rose in the past two years but the work required to hold the numbers increased, and destruction of the "Sagebrush Sea" from Oregon to Wyoming is putting protection efforts for an itty-bitty bunny on the map.

TX Model Transforms Low-Income Students Into Skilled Professionals

Play

Monday, February 6, 2023   

For more than two decades, a workforce development program in El Paso has invested in the economically disadvantaged to help them attain the education and job skills needed to earn higher wages.

Project ARRIBA - Advanced Retraining and Redevelopment Initiative in Border Areas - connects residents of low-income neighborhoods with resources that can prepare them for higher education and job training.

President and CEO Roman Ortiz says ARRIBA promotes living-wage jobs that will help residents stay in the El Paso area.

"In order to be able to get a good career, you're going to need post-secondary success," said Ortiz, "either at the community college level, or higher, in order to be able to get into better-paying jobs."

In December, the El Paso County commissioners awarded Project ARRIBA a 20-month contract worth $1 million in American Rescue Plan funds. Ortiz said he expects to see about a 30% increase in overall growth, allowing ARRIBA to serve twice as many new participants.

Ortiz said the program - which has a 94% job-placement rate - typically guides participants into health-care, information-technology and other professional careers.

"We're only going to train for jobs that we know that in El Paso are going to be in demand and pay a family-sustaining living wage," said Ortiz. "Our goal is $14 an hour with benefits and a career path - but on average, we're job-placing people close to $58,000 a year."

In El Paso, about one out of every two women lives below the poverty line established by the federal government, according to Ortiz.

He said that makes ARRIBA's success stories very encouraging - including one about a participant who received financial assistance to graduate with a nursing degree.

"She is the cardiovascular nurse manager for our top-tier university medical center here in El Paso," said Ortiz, "who manages almost 100 nurses herself and hires our nurses that we graduate today."

He said ARRIBA, which spends about $6,500 per participant, has helped some 1,800 graduate, and another 1,600 with job placement.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.




get more stories like this via email
The VOTES Act also ensures the Commonwealth joins the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, a multi-state consortium which aims to keep voter registration rolls up to date, encourage voter registration and prevent voter fraud. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

Voting rights advocates in Massachusetts are applauding Governor Maura Healey's budgetary backing of new policies stemming from last year's passage of…


Environment

Climate-change groups are calling attention to the environmental destruction linked to the wood pellet industry - even as California is considering a …

Social Issues

Many Nebraskans know how crucial a family caregiver is to one of their family members. Now AARP research has put a dollar value on that unpaid care - …


Going back generations, many Indigenous cultures developed strong ties with bison and relied upon them for sustenance, shelter, and cultural and religious practices. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

South Dakota is home to one of the nation's largest American Indian reservations, and the area is part of a movement among tribal nations to take …

Health and Wellness

As the cost of food, medicine and rent continues to climb, new data shows the benefits miners receive are now 40% less than what they received in 1969…

Stedman farmer Demi Tucker has been growing mushrooms on her family's land for the past few years. (Demi Tucker)

Environment

With the cost of farmland up by more than 8% percent in North Carolina, the state's Black farmers are struggling to purchase additional acreage or …

Environment

By Zachary Shepherd and Kelsey Paulus for Kent State News Lab.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Co…

Social Issues

Republican-sponsored bills and amendments in the Legislature would eliminate the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. More than 1.5-million …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021