Economic Self Sufficiency and Investment
"City Heights Gets to Work!" banners and signs can be seen at various locations in City Heights. Since 1999, we have hosted an annual "City Heights Gets to Work Career Expo and Job Fair" for employers to meet residents and visitors within the International Village Celebration (IVC) Street Fair,the first Saturday in June.
The Gets to Work! initiative is designed to work with residents of City Heights and surrounding communities to prepare and place job seekers in career path employement with local business and in major growth industries in San Diego. This initiative is part of the larger CHANGE (City Heights Action for Neighbors to Get Employed) program founded in 1997 through a unique partnership with San Diego Housing Commission and San Diego and Imperial County Labor Council. Over 1500 residents have found jobs through CHANGE since its inception. Employment readiness workshops as well as one on one assistance with resume creation, interview skills and job search are available in a variety of languages.
Business Services
The construction and presence of large-scale redevelopment projects present very special employment opportunities for work ready residents. CHANGE has worked with a variety of project developers and new retail stores to help them hire qualified employees for permanent jobs within the community. Successful Community Hire redevelopment partnerships include the City Heights Retail Village and the Metro Career Center and Metro Village Apartments.
Presently well over 2 thousand City Heights job seekers have listed their skills with the CHANGE Employment Registry. Scores of residents have already obtained jobs with new area businesses and we actively promote commitments from new merchants and builders to make community hiring a priority for their projects. In order to build the capacity for success within our small business community, we provide help to local merchants in understanding, accessing and advocating for the services they need from local government and providers of business technical assistance. We can hold specialized recruitment and screening to assist them in meeting their employment needs.
The other component of creating jobs for residents is to assist them in reducing their cost of living and saving the fruits of their labors to invest in their future and the community. Through the Resident Self Sufficiency program CHCDC provides financial literacy workshops, support of a food and living essentials cooperation, and access to computer technology for many of the CHCDC quality affordable apartment homes.
The City Heights Directory of Business Goods and Services is published and distributed to help residents and visitors "Hire and Buy in City Heights".We are currently working on the 7th Edition which includes free listings for businesses in the mid city area; additional ad space is available at very affordable rates. Regular features include a bilingual index, government & community services listings, articles highlighting local employers and new directory of immigrant and refugee owned businesses.
Enterprise
Maintain City Heights (MCH) is an expansion of the Neighborhood Improvement Cooperation Enterprise (NICE) founded by CHCDC in 1996. The enterprise employs and provides on-the-job training for residents in property and grounds maintenance. This and other enterprises can assist in the operation of new redevelopment projects and maintenance of additional public improvement projects. As an example, on the job training of MCH NICE team members was included during the installation of one of the largest affordable multifamily solar hot water and space heating systems in Southern California at Hollywood Palms.