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Building Bridges to
Family and Community Prosperity Conference
I want to thank Colleen Mooney from the South Bay Center for
Counseling and her entire staff for putting on this outstanding
conference.
I also want to acknowledge and thank all of the sponsors: the SPA 8
Regional Council, Department of Children and Family Services
(Torrance and Lakewood offices), ConocoPhillips, USW Local 8-675,
First 5 LA, the City of Carson, the Communication Workers of America
- Local 9400, Sound Energy Solutions, and the Los Angeles County
Children’s Planning Council.
Each of you here today have such a high level of commitment to
something that we all want: a chance to make life better for
yourself and your children and have a positive effect on the
communities in which you live.
I want to tell you that this Service Planning Area – “SPA 8” is the
envy of the entire County.
The work you do here is the most innovative, the most effective and
the most far- reaching in terms of having an impact on improving
lives and communities.
Your collaborative meetings, your neighborhood action councils, your
family support groups bring in partners from the County departments,
all of the cities in the area, the business community, schools and
grass-roots community agencies, all with the same goal: to work
collaboratively to help our families thrive and succeed.
I want to congratulate all of you for that.
I believe that the most fundamental way to strengthen families is to
develop economic opportunities.
The best example of this that I am so excited about is the “Energy
Career Pathways” program that this collaborative developed.
The program helps connect people to real employment opportunities at
the refineries and provide them the educational support they need to
succeed – and its working.
The first group of 45 people will be graduating from the program in
December and moving into jobs at the refineries paying 70-80K/year.
Im sure that many of them never dreamed that they would have this
opportunity.
How did they make this a reality? The key to it is as simple as
connecting the dots: a partnership between the refineries, the
community colleges and SPA 8, to create the jobs waiting at the end
of the rainbow.
We have a lot of work left to be done.
In the south bay area, about 40% of all families with children are
considered “low income.” That means that their income averages
around $35K-$40K per year.
The Energy Pathways project represents a genuine approach to trying
to address their basic needs, and I think that the opportunity to
get a real job with opportunity for advancement does just that.
And I know that SPA 8 is working on even more career pathways to
help even more families succeed.
Your work truly inspires me.
Welcome to the conference, have a great day, and thank you for your
commitment to our communities.
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