Workforce Development

For CalWORKs/GAIN participants in East and Southeast Los Angeles, D.E.S.I. serves as a host job site, providing real work experience in an organization with roots in the community they're coming from. TSE Plus is a partnership between the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity and the Rio Hondo America's Job Center of California (AJCC). Participants in the GAIN program are placed at host sites like D.E.S.I. for up to five months of paid, subsidized work experience. Wages and benefits are fully covered by the program. While here, participants build practical workplace skills, financial literacy, and employment history — and the best-fit candidates are considered for permanent positions when they're available.

D.E.S.I. is a participating job site for Youth@Work Elevate, LA County's workforce program for opportunity youth: young people ages 17–24 who have faced significant barriers, including foster care, justice involvement, housing instability, or other hardships. Elevate places participants in 400 hours of paid work experience at community sites like D.E.S.I., combined with career mentorship and trauma-informed training. For youth who come through our doors, that means learning alongside people who work in and for this community — real skills, real supervision, real relationships.

Our food bank isn't just a place to receive food — it's a place where our clients go to work. Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities staff the D.E.S.I. Food Bank alongside volunteers and employees, handling food intake, sorting, client check-in, and distribution. Every Tuesday and Thursday, those are real shifts with real responsibilities. Clients build time management, communication, teamwork, and logistics skills — the same skills that transfer to any job. For many participants, the food bank is the first step in their employment journey. Youth enrolled in the AJCC Elevate program also complete work experience hours here, creating a training site where people at different stages of their journey work side by side.