A Senatorial Visit, Collaboration, and Workforce Development with Canal Alliance 

On September 4, we were delighted to welcome Camille Pon and Thomas Hernandez of Senator Laphonza Butler’s office to Canal Alliance. The topics of the day? Scaling workforce development here in Marin, and the unique challenges faced by Latinos in this county, particularly those living in the Canal neighborhood. 

Canal Alliance now offers five career path training programs, all of which help Latinos in Marin break free of generational poverty.  The model we have created to ensure the success of these programs — and of our students — is one of partnership and collaboration. Canal Alliance recruits and enrolls students and provides solutions to many of the barriers our clients face when considering technical training, further education, or a career change; barriers like childcare, transit, housing, and more. We then partner with educational providers like College of Marin, Santa Rosa Junior College, Small Business Development Center, and UnidosUS for the coursework, supporting enrollees throughout the curriculum. Upon completion of their programs, students are placed with Canal Alliance’s employment partners, including Marin Builders Association, ZeroMar, By the Bay Heath, Marin Villa, Golden Gate Transit, and Bank of America. 

With Senator Butler’s staff on site, we took the opportunity to gather and discuss the unique challenges of Marin, the strategies we have found successful, and the barriers we see ahead when we consider Marin’s employment and housing needs, and the barriers our clients face. We are grateful to all that attended our roundtable discussion: Marin County Supervisors Denis Rodoni and Mary Sackett; Crystal Martinez of the County of Marin; President, Dr. Jonathan Eldridge and Dean Alina Verona from College of Marin; Rick Wells and Caran Cuneo from Marin Builders Association; Amy Loflin, Senior VP of Bank of America; CEO Graham Balch of ZeroMar, Community and Business Partnership Officer Sita Williams from Workforce Alliance of the North Bay; and our students Mario and Cristian, who offered their invaluable community insights. The roundtable was an honest and inspiring one, and we look forward to continuing the conversation. We believe our model to be replicable, and we are eager to explore new and growing applications of this effective strategy. 

For Camille and Thomas, the day ended with a tour of the Canal neighborhood, with staff representatives from Canal Alliance’s Policy & Advocacy team and University Prep! Program and two UP! students. Together these departments are running programs to combat sea level rise, run participatory process for community planning, and ensure Canal students graduate from high school and succeed in college and beyond