Work Activities Workshops

DesertArc provides vocational training and meaningful paid work through its Work Activities Workshops provided to clients who attend day programs on-site at the Palm Desert Campus and the Yucca Valley site. Between the two sites, more than 200 people are enrolled in workshops.

Clients enrolled in workshops first receive vocational training to prepare them for working and the specific type of work that they will be performing. Once they are ready, they are assigned a job in which they will be assigned to a specific work group. Though most workshops conduct their activities on-site, several are off-site work crews who go from site-to-site. Once they are assigned a job, a supervisor will provide on-the-job training to assist them in learning how to perform the tasks required. The jobs to which they are assigned are not “make work.” They are real jobs working in either a specific business conducted by DesertArc, such as Embroidery, Silkscreen, Pentel fulfillment or Contracts -- services provided by DesertArc on site, such as kitchen and custodial; or services provided to the community such as clean up. In all cases clients are paid a wage for their work, with the wage being determined on the basis of prevailing wage for the occupation factoring in their personal productivity.

In the continuum of a client’s progression toward independence and community integration, being trained and then becoming competent in a Workshop is an important milestone. Once a client achieves well-rounded work skills and is determined to be ready for community integration in the work setting, a client may “graduate” to DesertArc Supported Employment Program where the client will actually be trained and work in a supported setting, probably an Enclave, with an employer based in the community. See Supported Employment Program for more information.