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Job Services

DPSS provides job services that prepare you for in demand jobs. See below for the programs that assist you in finding employment on the road to self-sufficiency.

Skills and Training to Achieve Readiness for Tomorrow (START)
Young man standing in a crowd.

Skills and Training to Achieve Readiness for Tomorrow (START) provides employment and training services to help participants obtain jobs and achieve self-sufficiency. Participation in START is mandatory as a condition of aid for General Relief but voluntary for CalFresh participants. Participants are assigned to a START worker who will work with them to achieve their employment goals.

Refugee Employment Program (REP)
Immigrants of many ethnic backgrounds appear at a swearing in ceremony for US citizenship

The Refugee Employment Program (REP) is a program designed to provide employment and training services for eligible refugees and asylees residing in the United States (U.S.) up to five (5) years from date of entry in the U.S. or from the date asylum is granted.
The REP Program provides outreach, case management and placement services to refugees.

Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN)
Instructor showing students how to repair an engine.

GAIN helps CalWORKs participants prepare for and find employment. Services include job finding workshops, supervised job search, vocational assessment, remedial education, vocational skills training, and work experience. Post-employment services are also available to help employed participants retain their jobs, work toward a better one, and ultimately move to financial independence.

Child Care
Happy female teacher teaching group of small kids in a preschool.

The CalWORKs Child Care Program may reimburse child care services for current and former participants who are working or participating in a County-approved Welfare-to-Work (WtW) activity.

Three highlighted keyboard images with icons of a wheelchair, an ear and walking figure with a white cane.