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Topics: Work

Index

Chapter 1: Awakening to a Crisis
Chapter 2: Bringing Power back to the People
Chapter 3: Laying the Groundwork
Chapter 4: Working with the Business Community
Chapter 5: Designing QUEST
Chapter 6: Persuading the Powers
Chapter 7: Project Quest in Action
Chapter 8: The Community Connection
Chapter 9: Making the Grade
Chapter 10: The Future of Project QUEST

Contents

Chapter 6: Persuading the Powers

Chapter 7: Project Quest in Action
How QUEST Works
New Relationships
Real Jobs

Chapter Six: Persuading the Powers

They were joined by Governor Ann Richards, who a year earlier had committed $2.5 million in state funds to the project. Richards told the assembly, "I want this program to work. This is not just a jobs program. This is a program of economic development for the state of Texas. I think what you're doing here with Project QUEST is a model for the rest of the nation." She promised to monitor the program's progress and support it. Minutes later, candidates for state and local office pledged support for QUEST and other IAF agenda items in an "accountability session." It was a rousing kickoff for Project QUEST. But it was also much more.

Show of power: The convention provided a public moment for the leaders themselves, tangible evidence that all their hard work over the past few years—walking precincts, studying job training, organizing rallies—had produced a concrete benefit to their community. QUEST was a good idea, but good ideas without political power to propel them travel about as far as a beautifully designed plane without an engine. Actions like this one were part of turning a vision into reality.

The September 1992 rally culminated two years of building political power to push QUEST to fruition. The organizations had won backing of the business community for their job training strategy. Then they used that support to win the assistance of the governor, then used both of those commitments to gain the city's cooperation and funding.

IAF earned Ann Richards' cooperation. "We've worked with her through the years on other issues, so she knows our history," said Pat Ozuna. "And she's worked with Valley Interfaith on the colonias. So she got her staff to work with us to see what money they had available."

The first $2.5 million: On November 17, 1991, at a major meeting with 1,500 COPS and Metro Alliance leaders, city officials and business leaders in San Antonio, Richards announced her contribution to QUEST: $2.5 million, one of the largest grants made from the discretionary budget, called Wagner-Peyser funds. These monies are available for the governor to designate to job training projects through the Texas Employment Commission.

Why did Richards grant so much money out of a sparse budget to this single project? "She had a certain affinity for the philosophy of the IAF," said her then-chief of staff, Mary Beth Rogers, "particularly for the Iron Rule, and she knew they would hold people accountable for that money." In fact, the governor told the leaders at the 1992 rally that she would hold COPS and Metro Alliance accountable not just for the state money, but for creating a model jobs program. "COPS and Metro Alliance could have had all the credibility in the world," Rogers said, "but if they had come in with some kind of shoddy product, they wouldn't have had a chance. They had a track record and a program that was comprehensive. It was one of the best-planned proposals I'd ever seen."

Other state officials agreed. Bill Grossenbacher, administrator of the Texas Employment Commission (TEC), worked with COPS and Metro leaders and McPherson to guide QUEST through the maze of state and federal rules governing job training. "They were very knowledgeable, very committed," said Grossenbacher. "They truly are community-based and represent the interests and needs of local folks. This has been the most successful collaborative effort I've seen between the state and local groups." In 1992, QUEST received enthusiastic endorsement from TEC analysts, Department of Commerce JTPA specialists, the governor's policy council and the state job training coordinator.

Statewide political power played a key role in garnering Richards' support. In October 1990, at the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation statewide convention in San Antonio, the jobs issue was one of the four priorities the organizations demanded state leaders address. Candidates for various statewide offices, including Richards, pledged to work with IAF to address those issues. By helping fund QUEST, she was honoring her commitment.

The Fight for Funding As gratified as they were about receiving the state funds from the governor, the IAF leaders knew they needed more money and more backing from the City of San Antonio. Their campaign for support by the city had begun before Levi's closed, with a May 1990 action at Burbank High School calling on then-Mayor Lila Cockrell and then-gubernatorial candidate Ann Richards to support a new job strategy, including a commitment to individual training accounts. "The future of San Antonio is in its people, " Ozuna told the COPS leaders and politicians assembled there. "Investment in people is the real work of economic development. It is job training that focuses on developing the person and not subsidizing agencies." Cockrell agreed to set up meetings with business leaders to discuss the ideas. A few weeks later, the city council adopted a COPS-sponsored resolution to make preparing San Antonians for good jobs a city priority. The IAF campaign continued in meetings with city leaders in the wake of the Levi's closing, in a January 1991 rally at City Hall calling for restructuring of job training programs in San Antonio and in accountability sessions before the 1991 city elections.

In May 1991, at the height of the mayoral campaign, COPS and Metro Alliance held an accountability session with the two major mayoral candidates calling for commitments of specific funds to the effort. The organizations announced that they had identified several sources of funds: money from business subsidies, hotel taxes, and the sale of the city cable franchise. Both candidates agreed to work with Metro Alliance and COPS to find the money.

Change in job training: After Nelson Wolff was elected, he responded to reports of the PIC's corruption and inefficiency by dismissing the entire PIC board of directors. Its replacement, an agency called San Antonio Works, took over administration of the city's JTPA funds, including $2 million in discretionary federal money to spend on job training. When Metro and COPS leaders learned about the funds through their research, they convinced the mayor and city council members to designate them for new the job training pilot program. They made a strong case: the commitment of jobs from employers like Frost Bank and Baptist Hospital, promises of support extracted during accountability sessions from the mayor and most council members, and a commitment of state funds from the governor. On September 12, the San Antonio Works board voted to apply the JTPA funds to QUEST.

Those funds, while substantial, weren't enough because state and federal rules prohibited use of those funds to pay for a critical component of the IAF program support payments for families during training. QUEST required an additional $2 million in funding for the stipends to work.

Unacceptable alternatives: There was only one source for such money: the city's general revenues. But no American city had ever committed its own revenues to job training. And though the council members had promised during the campaigns to secure the funding, by fall 1991, they had not yet allocated funds from the city budget. Facing a budget shortage, city leaders started floating less expensive compromises that would water QUEST down. One proposal was to provide low-skill, part-time city jobs for stipend recipients, which would undermine the intensive training needed to attain high skills. Another was to make QUEST a very small ($200,000) and limited demonstration project.

"Initially, we were getting a lot of lip service from the council and the mayor," recalled Pat Ozuna, who spearheaded the political strategy. "But we worked with [council member] Frank Wing, and we agreed first $400,000 from CDBG funds. So that money really came from our projects, because that was the money we used every year for streets and libraries and sidewalks. In return, we asked them to make a public commitment for the other $1.6 million." By showing willingness to put up some of "their" money (the CDBG funds) for QUEST, Metro and COPS ratcheted up the pressure on the council to reciprocate. And the organization turned up the heat still further by scheduling a public rally for council members to affirm their commitment to full funding on September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day.

Showdown at City Hall

At this critical juncture, COPS and Metro Alliance's power and organizational skill carried the day. "The buses were arriving with our people in them," Ozuna recalled. "My son had put up big banners above the city hall steps. Our people were gathering on the east entrance to City Hall, and we're sitting right inside in this conference room. And the mayor and Wing and all of them are telling us, 'No way.' Meanwhile, there's 800 people outside chanting 'Invest in Us.' So we tell the mayor," OK, go out and face the people and tell them 'No way.'"

Moment of truth: The tension mounted as the undecided council members and IAF leaders marched out to the top of the massive cement steps. "So we all go outside to the microphone, and he sees all the people there, chanting, louder and louder," Ozuna remembered. "And we ask the question: 'Will you commit to $1.6 million in city funds for job training?'"

Wolff looked out at the hundreds of Metro Alliance and COPS leaders. "Invest in us! Invest in us!" they shouted in unison.

"Yes," he said.

The crowd cheered. Pat Ozuna approached with a huge placard bearing the pledge Wolff had just made. "We gave him a black marker and he signed his name to the poster," Ozuna said. "All the other council members are standing behind him, and we asked them, 'Will you sign?' And they did, one by one."

Organized people had forced the city to keep its commitment. Still, one last hurdle remained: the city hadn't specified when they would produce the $1.6 million. So two months later, the organizations invited Wolff and other council members to the meeting at which Governor Ann Richards committed the $2.5 million in Wagner-Peyser money to the pilot program. A few minutes later, Tom Frost, on behalf of other business leaders, announced the fruits of the COPS/Metro meetings with the business community: 26 local employers had pledged 650 jobs to the program. Then Pat Ozuna took the podium and upped the pressure on the city.

"Think of this job training project as a wagon," she said. "This wagon is going to take us to good jobs for our people. But right now, it only has three wheels: the governor's commitment of state funds, the corporate leaders' commitment of jobs, the $2 million in JTPA money," signed over by the San Antonio Works board. Ozuna then turned to the mayor. "Mayor Wolff, will you come up with the fourth wheel?" she asked, in front of 1,500 COPS and Metro Alliance leaders, former Mayor Cisneros, County Judge John Longoria, Archbishop Patrick Flores, and assorted council members and other dignitaries.

The mayor then made the commitment to identify the $1.6 million—not all in one bundle at the front, but as it was needed within a week.

"Getting the money was the hardest part," said Virginia Ramirez. "There was a lot of work pushing, pushing, pushing to get them to understand how important this was. It was a tremendous challenge. We kept telling ourselves, 'If we don't do this right, nothing is going to change for our families."'

Leveraging Power

He remembered the September 3 showdown at City Hall as a tense moment. "I don't think anything meaningful gets done in any government without a little tension, and COPS and Metro helped to heighten the tension on this. And when you see a lot of people supporting that idea, it makes your job a little easier to do. It brings pressure on your council colleagues. It's important to show that it's not only a belief of the top leadership of COPS and Metro, but also that the membership believes in it, and they had hundreds of people there."

Strong focus: Why did Wolff, not an "inner city" candidate, work so well with COPS and Metro Alliance? "They have a strong focus on their issues, and they don't overload their agenda," the mayor explained. "They do job training, education, and housing. They're tenacious, but they don't dilute their power by being up here every week recommending people to boards, or taking a position on every issue. They're very targeted in what they want to do. There are no other groups in town that could have pulled this off." Wolff was so convinced of QUEST's viability that his office set up meetings with local employers, and he accompanied COPS and Metro Alliance leaders to meetings with them to urge their participation in the program.

Ultimately, politics is about negotiating interests. COPS and Metro won because they designed QUEST to meet the interests of all stakeholders involved in it: Businesses will save the costs of searching for and moving employees from other cities to fill high-skill positions here, and the new hires will have the training that the employers think necessary for the new jobs. The city gains by reducing the number of unemployed and under-employed citizens, whose augmented incomes will boost the city economy. The trainees, of course, benefit by having better jobs that pay more money and enhanced skills that are transferable to other jobs.

The leaders pushed QUEST to completion by leveraging power: showing each player—business leaders, politicians, working people—how the program served their interests, then using each commitment of support to obtain other commitments. (The leveraging continues. Governor Richards wrote a letter to President Bill Clinton in early 1994, touting QUEST as a model for the nation's job training system.) Metro Alliance and COPS had cultivated allies and given them the political support necessary to push QUEST to completion. The battle wasn't over, but after the pivotal September 3 confrontation, Metro and COPS had momentum on their side. San Antonio would have a new job training program.

Texas Governor Ann Richards wrote this letter in support of Project QUEST to President Clinton.

State of Texas
Office of the Governor
Austin, Texas 78711

Ann W. Richards
Governor

January 25, 1993

The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Clinton:

The nation is waiting and watching on the issue of welfare reform.

We have something working in Texas that you and your staff should see. For over a year we have been operating a pilot program in San Antonio that could break the welfare cycle as we know it in this country.

PROJECT QUEST is a Governor's funded program combined with city funds and commitments of actual jobs from the private sector. The concept is simple.

People who need a job enter a two-year job training program that is custom designed to meet their needs and qualifies them for an existing job in their community. The business community has pledged over five hundred jobs that pay a living wage and have health benefits.

The initial investment per participant is $10,800. In three years of employment, the taxes the person pays as a working member of society will repay this initial investment of government. Our statistics project that breaking the cycle of welfare for a twenty-five year old mother of two children will save the government over $55,000 in a ten year period for AFDC, Food Stamps, and Medicaid costs.

I suggest that if, as a nation, we changed our existing federally funded job and employment training programs for people on public assistance, we could limit their assistance to two years once they commence a program like PROJECT QUEST.

We are convinced in Texas there really is a way to learn and earn your way off welfare. It is not a hand out. It really can be a hand up.

Texas always likes to be the launchpad for innovation and creative ideas. I would love to showcase PROJECT QUEST because I believe there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if the wheel is already rolling.

Sincerely,

Ann W. Richards
Governor

Chapter Seven: Project QUEST in Action

"We are serving economically disadvantaged people who have the aptitude and motivation to engage in the more difficult training programs," said QUEST director Jack Salvadore. "There are other programs for people who require English as a Second Language training or GED education. Some people need survivor jobs: working in a restaurant may be appropriate for them until their skills are developed. We're not a social service agency," he insisted. Half the enrollees are on some form of public assistance, so once they have jobs, the government will save at least a million dollars directly, in addition to reaping the taxes they will be paying on their new incomes.

Even faced with these challenges, Project QUEST has been remarkably successful. Project QUEST has experienced less than a 5 percent annual attrition rate, with only 12 trainees leaving training in the first six months. One-third of its participants were on the honor roll in fall 1993.

Adapting to Change The program has inevitably had to adjust course slightly after it began operation in earnest in 1993. "We were blessed with a comprehensive conceptual design, " says Salvadore, "but no plan can be built to make it unnecessary for adjustments."

Some companies were at first reluctant to commit jobs to QUEST because their naturally fluctuating business makes it difficult to precisely predict employment a year or two in advance. QUEST solved this problem by obtaining collective commitments from all the companies in a given industry. For example, 10 hospitals have promised more than 350 jobs for allied health technicians. Because it's designed to be responsive to local economic and community needs, QUEST can quickly adapt to changing circumstances.

Improving programs: Second, said Salvadore, "There turned out to be a lack of quality training programs. For example, despite the high demand for diesel mechanics, only one good program existed for training, and that was in Waco, two hours away from San Antonio. Poor people here can't afford to leave their children and drive to Waco," he said. The community college's existing program took two years to complete, used an obsolete equipment, and lacked viable links with local employers. Not surprisingly student interest was low.

QUEST job rsearchers discovered that if San Antonio had a modern diesel mechanic training program, there would be a good market for its graduates. So QUEST plugged the gap between need and reality. "In a collaborative effort with the community college and the QUEST occupational advisory committee, we created a diesel heavy-equipment repair course at St. Phillips College's southwest campus," said Salvadore. The training lasts nine months, awards graduates a nationally recognized certificate, and teaches the skills that local employers feel are important for skilled technicians in diesel equipment repair. A skilled instructor was hired to provide the training, and QUEST obtained donations of engines for the school and additional equipment so students have sufficient training aids. The new program has made a real difference, Salvadore says. "The students are getting a course the employers believe in, so the graduate is more employable. People whose life circumstances may not permit them to take years to complete a traditional program are getting a course that takes less time and is focused on the task of being a diesel mechanic: They spend 25 hours a week on it, double the time they were putting in under the old program."

QUEST is still changing. "We are a work in progress," admitted Salvadore, pointing out that experience is teaching the staff lessons about how to reach out to employers and potential trainees, and how to assess capabilities.

Changing the System

QUEST has also changed the way remediation is taught. Staffers were surprised to discover that 95 percent of participants required some remedial work in math or English skills before they could embark on more sophisticated classes or training programs. QUEST responded.

"With the help of the community college district, there is in place a computer-based skills academy at the community college which uses a nationally recognized computer-based system," said Salvadore. The new system is quite different from the kind of high school and college classes many trainees had trouble with earlier in life. Participants attend intensive remediation classes four hours a day, five days a week, and complete the courses in three months or less, rather than the year or two it would take on the traditional academic cycle.

"It does diagnostics, it's user-friendly, self-paced, and high-intensity," Salvadore points out. "It gets their basic math, English and reading skills up to speed so people can get to high skill training quicker. It cuts their remediation time in half and therefore cuts down on cost. And it keeps them interested because they can get engaged in their job training much sooner."

Besides improving the remediation system and upgrading the diesel repair course, QUEST has also created an entirely new training program. The large financial institutions in San Antonio were finding a dire shortage of financial customer service representatives, employees who can answer customers' questions from all over the country about accounts and services offered in the rapidly changing banking and insurance fields.

"In conjunction with Palo Alto College and the American Institute of Banking, we developed a financial customer service certificate program," reported Salvadore. "It lasts a year, and also provides an opportunity for students to pursue the program further on their own. The classes are accredited, so if they want to put more time in later, they can turn it into a BS in accounting or finance, or associate programs. It offers people a good entry-level opportunity in banking."

Thanks to Project QUEST, the community colleges have become an vital contributor to economic development in San Antonio. Securing these changes would have been impossible without the political clout wielded by the IAF organizations and the allies they had recruited in putting together the job training effort. In fact, Salvadore would like to see the IAF organizations play an even greater role in QUEST. "If somebody's having difficulty at home or at school, we'd like to get the community involved in helping them work out their problems. We're just getting into that, and the organizations are interested in doing it. I'd like to see them involved all the way along."

COPS and Metro Alliance are also holding the program accountable. "I'm most impressed with the accountability they built into the program," says Peggy Brown, administrator of the Baptist Memorial Hospital system's Institute ot Health Education. "They demand that the people in QUEST work hard and adhere to high standards. And they in turn are holding QUEST's feet to the fire, making sure that all this taxpayer money is going to be used effectively. They're constantly checking the number of people who are being hired into desirable positions, how many are successful in training and making it into the work force."

For years, entities with major impact on the lives of working people had been disconnected. QUEST is becoming the central thread that ties all the others together into a fabric that can support business, working people, educational institutions and community organizations. By the end of its first year of operation, QUEST had signed 42 agreements, setting up linkages with agencies such as the Texas Employment and Texas Rehabilitation Commissions, local chambers of commerce and various social service agencies. Looking ahead to the end of the demonstration project period, QUEST officials are working with the community college district and federal officials to make QUEST a JTPA-funded permanent institution. All three parties in this joint venture would benefit from the arrangement; QUEST would receive a reliable source of federal dollars; the community college would gain higher enrollment and better training programs, and JTPA would get a new philosophy of job training that meets the needs of employers and the community. The main baneficiaries, however, will be the thousands of hardworking San Antonians who obtain new skills from the program.

Finally, QUEST has made a less tangible, but perhaps more far reaching contribution: changing the wav people think about economic development in San Antonio. "With the help of partners such as the Texas A&M University Engineering Extension Service, the community college district, COPS and Metro Alliance, and employers, we're putting a new emphasis on occupational training," says Salvadore. "Everybody now recognizes the fact that in order to become a world-class community capable of attracting businesses that bring good jobs, we have to develop a world-class job training program. I think we are doing that with QUEST."

How QUEST Works

• Recruiting employers, securing job commitments: Project QUEST negotiates partnership agreements with local employers who agree to hire successful participants for jobs that pay at least $7 to $8 an hour, full benefits and opportunities for advancement. A staff of three job development specialists researches the area job market through analysis of business data and interviews with local employers, and also meets with local employers to show how it is in their self-interest to have a well-trained workforce.
  
• Designing a training program: Project QUEST has set up occupational advisory committees in each major occupation to create an appropriate training program for each participant. Employers collaborate with QUEST staff and local educators at every step in establishing certification requirements, achievement standards and curriculum design. These committees make sure the courses meet the needs of both participating employers and students, who want skills and certification that make them attractive to many companies.
  
• Recruiting trainees; evaluation and referral: In initial interviews at outreach centers around the city, community leaders explain the program to applicants. After hearing about the personal commitment needed to complete QUEST training, between one-third and one-half of applicants do not proceed to the evaluations phase at the QUEST offices. The program requires that an applicant hold a GED or high school diploma. Those not qualifying are referred to other public agencies that help people obtain GEDs and remedial education.

  Those who do advance to evaluation spend one to three weeks in an intensive assessment of their skills, capacities, and interests. They take aptitude tests that measure such abilities as basic English and math, reasoning and workplace skills, as well as their interests, temperament, and work preferences. Upon entry, QUEST participants have an average eleventh-grade reading ability and ninth-grade math ability. Applicants and counselors then jointly decide which occupation they will pursue from among the various jobs available, and the counselors create an employment development plan for each participant.

• Counseling and supporting trainees: An occupational counselor works with each participant through training and into the first several months of employment. The counselor expedites the applicant through the community college's (or other training institution's) procedural requirements, often serving as an advocate to negotiate various bureaucratic obstacles.

  Trainees participate in weekly mandatory group counseling. Counselors convene the groups by occupation, conduct workshops on motivation, and discuss the demands of course work, study habits, and work behavior, as well as personal issues such as self-esteem and coping with family and life crises. At each phase of the program, QUEST staff and COPS and Metro Alliance leaders emphasize the trainees' responsibility for their performance.

• Supporting families: Project QUEST assists families that otherwise would be unable to finance additional education from their own resources. Counselors ensure that participants and their families receive all services and income support they are eligible for, such as food stamps and AFDC. They arrange housing, if needed, through arrangements with the local housing authority or a homeless shelter. Project QUEST has secured inter-agency agreements with local social service providers to provide speedy access' to services for eligible trainees.

Figure 7.1: Age of Project Quest Participants [not available online]

• It brings employers together to assess more clearly what they are seeking from potential employees and what commitments they are willing to make.
• It creates solid links between training institutions and employers so that the training programs better meet employers' needs.
• It operates as a mediating institution to bring families back into relationship with employers, training institutions and social service providers.
• It connects people from working communities with good jobs.

Real Jobs

• Twelve local hospitals have committed jobs in 13 allied health care occupations such as registered nurse, licensed vocational nurse, respiratory therapy technician, physical therapy assistant and radiologic technologist.
• A money center bank opening a telephone service center has contracted for 20 customer service representatives. A local Air Force base has committed aircraft maintenance technician positions.
• A manufacturer of computer modems will hire electronics technicians.
• Project QUEST is helping to train chemical lab technicians for a consortium of a local Air Force base and small laboratories; hazardous materials technicians for a consortium of small companies; and dental hygienists for the local dentists' professional association. It is actively pursuing agreements with employers of diesel mechanics, heavy equipment repairers, facilities technicians and other skilled workers.

Project QUEST Demand Occupations

Index

Chapter 1: Awakening to a Crisis
Chapter 2: Bringing Power back to the People
Chapter 3: Laying the Groundwork
Chapter 4: Working with the Business Community
Chapter 5: Designing QUEST
Chapter 6: Persuading the Powers
Chapter 7: Project Quest in Action
Chapter 8: The Community Connection
Chapter 9: Making the Grade
Chapter 10: The Future of Project QUEST