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Main Purpose of Program <br />Taller San Jose (St. Joseph's Workshop) has one focused mission — to provide <br />continuing education and job- training to young adults (18 -28) who seek a productive <br />and self - reliant future. <br />Taller San Jose was established in 1995, by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, in <br />response to the high crime rate among Santa Ana's youth and the lack of resources <br />available to youth who had either dropped out of school or been incarcerated. The <br />majority of youth involved in job- training at Taller San Jose (75 %) have been or are <br />currently involved in gangs, crime and drugs. Taller San Jose is a highly focused, goal - <br />oriented program that challenges its students to build a foundation for future <br />sustainability. <br />Taller San Jose Tech (TSJ Tech) is a mission based entrepreneurial venture of Taller <br />San Jose. TSJ Tech recruits young people with no marketable job skills and prepares <br />them to work everyday, on -time, responsibly, drug free, and as team members. Program <br />elements incorporate workplace skills and industry specific job- training with paid work <br />experience, mentoring, job placement, and easy access to Taller San Jose's educational <br />and life skills programs. The goal of TSJ Tech is to assist unemployed youth (18 -28) to <br />become economically self- sufficient in a relatively short period of time through intensive <br />hands -on job training coupled with employability and social development. <br />Young people in Santa Ana, who have not completed high school, who have no defined <br />job skills, and who have criminal records face a number of significant obstacles. Taller <br />San Jose Tech has identified seven barriers to advancement faced by its target population: <br />1. Out -of- school youth do not view themselves as "learners" and are both <br />reluctant to return to school and ill prepared to enroll in community college. <br />2. Because they have no job skills to offer an employer, out -of- school youth tend <br />to enter the job market at minimum wage and stay there without the ability to <br />advance their employment status. <br />3. Many young men are unemployed and yet have financial responsibility for the <br />children they have parented. <br />4. Although they are unskilled and inexperienced, young males are often viewed <br />by their extended family as primary breadwinners. <br />5. Young males in Santa Ana are exposed to the drug culture on a daily basis. <br />6. A number of young males are unable to pay their mounting fines related to <br />probation or to past legal infractions. <br />2 <br />