By Brian CHERNICK

With the help of grant money from Measure H, the City of Glendale is bringing together a number of homeless community service providers to help put over a dozen individuals back into the workforce and out of poverty.

The City’s Community Services and Parks Dept. Workforce Development Section was awarded $100,000 during Tuesday’s Glendale City Council meeting and will be leading a program aimed at training and transitioning adults out of homelessness and into jobs. The grant money will allow for a large collective effort throughout the community and involves numerous partners to find, prepare and train those in need. The Regional Immediate Intervention Service to Employment project, or RIISE, brings together Glendale’s Continuum of Care, the 42-bed shelter and outreach program Ascencia and the Verdugo Job Center (VJC) to refer potential participants and help find jobs after completing the program.

With the funds, RIISE will be able to provide 160 hours, or about nine weeks, of work experience and skills training to each of the participants where they will learn a good work ethic, schedule management and landscaping.

“The goal is to provide individuals who have not been working the opportunity to get those important skills,” said Glendale’s Workforce Development administrator Judith Velasco. “We’re really excited for the program and they’re really excited for the opportunity.”

Measure H, which was approved by voters in California’s March election earlier this year, added an additional 0.25% tax for 10 years in order to fund services to prevent homelessness. The measure stipulated that cities must comply with the Approved Strategies to Combat Homelessness that was drafted by LA County’s Homeless Initiative and approved by the county board of supervisors in February 2016.

According to a city report in 2016, Glendale saw its own homelessness count increase 15%, from 208 to 240. Homelessness in Los Angeles has grown to unprecedented levels this year to over 55,000 people living in shelters and on the streets, according to city officials.

  Brian CHERNICK