At Pima Community College (PCC), serving “nontraditional” learners is a specialty.
The college has become particularly adept at getting adults enrolled in and through training programs and into high-wage jobs. In 2021, it launched FastTrack, a program that allows learners to earn a stackable micro-credential in three to six months.
“Providing market-driven curriculum is a college-wide responsibility,” says PCC Chancellor Jeffrey Nasse.
With PimaSTART, the college is bringing fast-tracked workforce training to the unhoused population in Tucson, Arizona.
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PimaSTART (Success Through Advanced Reskilling and Training) was created in partnership with the H.S. Lopez Family Foundation Center of Opportunity, which provides shelter, recovery services, medical, dental and mental health services and more for unhoused people. And PCC is crucial to residents’ next steps: getting a job.
The start of START
The beginnings of PimaSTART are linked to Humberto S. Lopez, who, with his wife, Czarina Lopez, created the H.S. Lopez Family Foundation.
The Lopezes have a “strong heart for unhoused people,” according to Marcy Euler, president and CEO of Pima Foundation.
In 2018, the Lopez Family Foundation bought a hotel in Tucson and converted it into a homeless shelter, which is managed by the Gospel Rescue Mission. But Humberto Lopez didn’t want it to only be a place for people to reside and recover. He also wanted it to be a place where people could get skills training so they could earn “thriving” wages, Euler says.
That’s where PCC comes in. Lopez approached the college’s former chancellor in 2021 about providing workforce training at the center. The college sketched out an idea of the program and approximate cost. Lopez agreed and, through the family foundation, provided a gift of $250,000 to launch PimaSTART.
Then the real work began.
Diving into the program
For this program, nearly all the training had to take place at the Center of Opportunity. Fortunately, the building was equipped with a warehouse, a full-size kitchen, computer labs and more. And thanks to the already existing FastTrack program, PCC didn’t have to reinvent the wheel to provide short-term training programs.
PimaSTART provides certification courses in culinary arts, building and construction technologies, logistics and information technology. A truck driving program is available off-site. Participants can even learn entrepreneurship skills.
Oscar Casillas turned his life around and earned a culinary arts degree through the PimaSTART program at Pima Community College. (Source: PCC)
College faculty retrofitted the classes to fit residents’ schedules and needs.
The programs are designed to provide the “least amount of training to get the highest-level job possible,” says Ian Roark, Pima’s vice chancellor of workforce development and innovation.
Since the first cohort began classes in 2022, about 160 people have participated in the program and 78 have completed a training program with many others still enrolled.
“It’s rewarding to go to completion ceremonies,” Roark says.
When participants are ready to work, they can tap the Second Chance Business Coalition‘s “Community Partners Map,” which helps individuals identify and connect with community-based and public organizations across the U.S. that support second chances. Participants also can continue to take classes at PCC, as all PimaSTART offerings are eligible for credit-for-prior learning in the college’s technical credit-bearing programs.
Strong financial support
Since its inception, nearly $1 million in donations and matching funds have been raised to support PimaSTART. After the completion of the first cohort in 2022, Pima Foundation received another $250,000 gift.
“Mr. Lopez’s commitment is outstanding,” Nasse says.
That gift was matched by another donor.
A key fundraiser supporting PimaSTART is the Annual Tucson Classics Car Show. One of southern Arizona’s largest car shows, it has raised over $2.6 million for local nonprofits, including Pima Foundation. For 2023, the Rotary Club presented the foundation with a check for more than $80,000.
In January, the Rotary Club of Tucson presented the foundation with a check surpassing $112,575 for PimaSTART. The gift was further amplified through the Hillman Challenge match.
Scaling up micro-pathways
The college is now working to scale up the program – and not just for its own community, but for others, as well. In October, PCC received $25,000 from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship to do that work.
And the college is looking at growing the micro-pathway model to expand into other residential homeless shelters, too, according to Roark.
Faculty members also are all in, as full-time faculty design the PimaSTART offerings, and then full-time or adjunct faculty teach them through the academic divisions.
“I’m impressed by how mission-driven the team is,” Nasse says. “They’re coming together to meet [the needs of] every learner.”
