The American Job Center in Pilsen receives thousands of visitors seeking to pursue all kinds of career support – from filing to receive unemployment benefits to applying for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) program to interview preparation with career coaches. The influx of visitors means that the maintenance team at the center stays very busy. So busy in fact that they grew their team by two!
Jaira Estrada, Program Manager at National Able Network (and overall superhuman who also manages National Able Network’s call center, various staff members, and more!), along with Terri Wright, Maintenance Custodian, led the efforts to fill these brand-new positions on the team. Always seeking to support client growth and career connections, Jaira met with Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) colleagues who happily provided the hiring team with candidates whose goals aligned with the roles. However, the strongest candidates weren’t fluent in English.
Jaira and Terri discussed the needs to succeed in the roles, and determined that speaking English was not a necessity. Terri says, “I just wanted the positions filled by people that were willing to work, wiling to show up, and willing to learn.” The team quickly and successfully filled the roles!
It’s been over a month now and Jaira says, “Communication wasn’t a barrier at all. It really speaks about their open mindedness – they didn’t see it as an obstacle. Their attitude was ‘I want to work, I want experience, and I want help finding work.’ And they’re really happy to be here. Terri says, “It’s been positive and wonderful. I don’t speak much Spanish, and they don’t much speak English, but we’ve finding our way around that. They’re learning English and I’m learning more Spanish.”
Nelson Gonzalez, 56, one of the new team members, who is originally from Margarita, Venezuela, said “I’m not limited by anything. I want to progress, and I want to keep learning,” He continues, “This experience has been marvelous, and the people are incredible….I’ve left a place full of stress and came to this place of miracles where people lend you hand, speak with you, converse with you, ask you questions…I feel very good here. The most important thing is communication. It is the fundamental base, and with humility, you can achieve anything.”
Communication goes beyond language. Communication is understanding, hard work, and problem solving to achieve something greater. We applaud the entire team at the American Job Center, including Jaira, Terry, Nelson, and Corin for their teamwork and collaboration which is noticed and appreciated by every visitor in Pilsen.
