One-Stop Job Center
Coming to Downtown
J.C. Penney Building to Get New Tenant

Tulare - An agreement is nearly in place that would allow Community Services Employment and Training (C-SET) to operate a one-stop employment center in the former J.C. Penney's building in downtown Tulare.

“We're real close,” said Bob Reynolds, a partner in the Tulare Industrial Center, which owns the building on the southeast corner of East Tulare Avenue and J Street.
The County of Tulare had offered services at the site for many years but recently moved them to county-owned buildings.

The Employment Connection, the name of the one-stop center, would take up about 8,200 square feet on the first floor of the two-story building.

During its first year, about 15 people from various agencies and organizations are expected to deliver employment services to an estimated 10,900 people, C-SET Executive Director Carolyn Rose said.

“We want to grow that,” Rose said.

“The purpose of an Employment Connection, one-stop center is to offer services to the whole community,” Rose said. “Services are not restricted to persons of any particular economic strata.

The center, which is one of four funded by the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board (WIB), could open by Aug. 1, she said.

The Tulare County WIB awarded C-SET a contract to operate Employment Connection one-stop centers in Tulare, Visalia and Porterville, Rose said. Proteus will operate a fourth in Dinuba.

In past attempts to create one-stop centers in Tulare, the agencies simply co-located but WIB Executive Director Adam Peck said the Employment Connection's goal is to go beyond that.

“What we're really striving for is to have a seamless operation, so people don't have to figure out what agency they need to talk with,” Peck said. “We can figure all that out for them.”

Assembled at the Tulare site will be representatives of the WIB Employment Development Department, C-SET, Tulare Adult School and Turning Point, which offers specialized employment counseling for offenders and homeless people, Rose said.

The center will continue services to employers, including those interested in hiring people who need training and having the Employment Connection pick up half of their wages for the first 12 weeks, Peck said.

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