Workforce Alliance of the North Bay Relocates to Open CareerPoint Napa

The Workforce Alliance of the North Bay (WANB) recently relocated from their downtown offices to open CareerPoint Napa, a new American Job Center of California (AJCC) hosted at the County's Health and Human Services campus. CareerPoint Napa, which provides a wide-range of services to support job seekers and employees, strategically co-located with Health and Human Services and the Employment Development Department (EDD) to facilitate collaborative initiatives and provide a centralized location for employment related resources. We spoke with Bruce Wilson, Executive Director of WANB, about this innovative approach to workforce services and its impact on the Napa community.

Can you tell us about the motivation behind co-locating with County Health and Human Services and the Employment Development Department (EDD) every other week?

On September 10 of this year, The Workforce Alliance of the North Bay and the Napa County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) was pleased to announce the opening of a new American Job Center of California (AJCC) in Napa. The AJCC, named CareerPoint Napa, provides a range of services to help job seekers and employers meet their workforce needs. The AJCC is part of a national initiative that connects job seekers and employers with local, state and federal workforce programs and resources. AJCCs offer access to career counseling, training, job search assistance, labor market information and other services that can help individuals find and retain employment. AJCCs also serve as a hub for employers to post job openings, recruit qualified candidates, and receive customized workforce solutions. Our belief was simple: by unifying community partners, employment services and training resources in one location, we could better serve Napa's community.

How does this new location support your vision of creating a "one-stop shop" for community services?

CareerPoint Napa hosts a growing family of workforce partners that include the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Employment Development Department (EDD), Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) who helps people with disabilities find employment, California Human Development (CHD), who assists our community's farmworkers and Welfare-to-Work (WTW) and CalFresh Employment and Training (CFET) both of which serve individuals and families receiving public assistance benefits in navigating their journey back to work. Each partner brings their services to the Health and Human Services Campus forming a true One-Stop Job Center, operating in the true spirit of collaboration and partnership. Our vision to create one seamless system and location that job seekers and businesses can access to find their next job or employee has taken a giant leap forward through these incredible partnerships.

Are there any additional services that will be expanded or enhanced in conjunction with this move?

The WANB is always looking for better ways to improve and expand our services. We maintain an open mindset to innovation and continuous improvement. We are excited to announce new CareerPoint Napa service offerings in the near future that may be delivered online as well as more information and services that will enhance our resource rich career center that is free and open to all members of the public.

How do you anticipate this location will improve access for individuals seeking assistance or integrated support services?

CareerPoint Napa will improve our service offerings on many fronts. Individuals no longer have to travel to multiple locations throughout the County to speak with staff representatives of each of the programs represented. Individuals will be immediately welcomed into a resource rich career and education environment with networked computers, access to relevant labor market information about occupations, job finding workshops, hiring events and more. Eligible members of the community can access additional services such as one-on-one career counseling and training support including tuition assistance. By integrating partners together in the same location, eligible members can more easily access partner-based resources to support their journey to work including childcare, transportation assistance, clothing assistance and more. This is all more easily facilitated through co-location and communication between programs and community members.

What do you see as the most innovative aspect of this new collaborative approach?

Sometimes common visioning and a core belief that we are better as a community when we work together trumps innovation. I don't know that partnership and collaboration is innovative, but executing on ideas is an A+ outcome. The Napa County Health and Human Services Agency leadership truly deserves so much credit for their open mindset and their ability to execute on good ideas. Having a one-stop career center here in Napa is critically important and Napa's leaders deserve a great deal of credit for recognizing and acting on this need. This is only the beginning and the future is very bright. We are excited to announce more innovative service offerings in 2025 that we believe will dramatically improve access and services.

What challenges did you overcome in establishing this new shared space?

I suppose standard organizational challenges apply. This project required significant communication between partners about the specific services available, coordination on joint programming and details on how to access services including costs and timing. Honestly, I would probably re-label these things from "challenges" to the cost of doing business and learning to work together.

What are your long-term goals for this collaborative location?

Continuous improvement in terms of joint programming and integration, more and more relevant services and the delivery of place based services (pop-ups) to the far reaches of the County.

Do you anticipate further initiatives to drive collaboration with other organizations or departments?

As mentioned above, we operate with an open mindset and will explore any and all good ideas and future partnerships. We welcome any feedback and suggestions that help us get better, expand our services through partnerships and deliver positive employment outcomes for our job seekers and businesses. Some natural organizations that we would love to grow with include City jurisdictions (what if we collaboratively delivered City based summer job programs for our youth?), the Napa Valley Community College and the Napa Valley Adult Education Center. These are all natural partners that share our strong desire to reach full employment in our community.

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