What is the Job Skills Center?

Job Skills Center Goals
Job Skills is the area at Connections that provides the opportunity for our participants to get a feel for working life and gain job related skills.

1st Rate 2nd Hand

TCC volunteers at 1st Rate 2nd Hand thrift store by straightening up 
the shelves, searching for empty hangers, sorting clothes, and helping customers to locate items. By volunteering and supporting our local community TCC participants learn a variety of skills from sorting, counting, coloring coding, and most importantly the value of giving back to your community.

Grounds Keeping 

The Groundskeeping team is a very handy group of individuals that don't mind getting a little dirty outside and putting in some serious work! They help us out here at Connections by keeping our outside areas swept and free of garbage and they even have a few clients outside of the program! 

Handyman Crew

Our Handymen are indispensable for us around the program! They're very timely about replacing the AC filters in each area, going supply shopping, and taking care of any odd jobs that arise. 

Kids First

One of our newest volunteer groups is the team of participants that volunteer at Kids First Day Care! This is a small group that really enjoys working one-on-one with children and benefits greatly from this weekly interaction. The group has had the pleasure of working with a variety of age groups and assisting the teachers during different aspects of their day. 

Office Team

Office Team introduces the concept of office work to our participants by having them work together to prepare the the personalized schedule for each participant that they will take home for the following week. They work together in an assembly-line fashion to label, staple, and highlight the schedules. 

Water Refills 

At Connections we understand the importance of drinking plenty of water and make keeping plenty of water in stock a priority! We take is so seriously that we even have a class dedicated to keeping our water jugs full. This group gathers the empty jugs, travels to get them refilled, and participates in the task of billing each area's supervisor for the water. 
The goals Job Skills has for our participants is that by participating in our programs they feel better prepared to have a job in the future.

Arts & Crafts 

This class plans a craft of their interest; they shop for the materials needed, then have fun working together on their creations! Some of the things the class has made are: personalized mugs & tote bags, holiday oriented decorations, picture magnets and many more.

Habitat for Humanity


TCC participants volunteer at Tucson’s local Habitat for Humanity HabiStore. Participants help to clean, sort, and price donated items. Through the act of volunteering our participants, learn to give back and support their local community.  

Honest John Boxes

The Honest John Box program is a work program that Connections' has adapted from a Sheridan Systems concept using their Charity Vending Display. The Honest John Box its self is a snack box that is left at local businesses around town for people in the community to purchase a snack, leaving the payment in a money collection box built in to the unit. The Honest John Box teams meet several times a week to do tasks such as re-filling boxes, taking inventory, counting money, distributing boxes, and supply shopping. 

Laundry

The Laundry Class can make even the chore of washing clothes fun and interactive! This group is responsible for collecting the weeks laundry from each area, taking it to a community laundromat to be washed and dried, folding it, and returning it to its rightful area. It is a lot of work but our participants take pride in keeping our things clean!

Recycle

Recycling is a great work skill for our participants as well as a perfect lesson in being responsible for our impact on the planet and not being wasteful. This team collects the saved recyclables from each area and takes them to a location in the community where they sort of items, crush cans, and take care of the items accordingly. 

Watering Plants

Window Washing 

Our Window Washing crew really has their skill down to an art form! We're blessed to have large, tall windows along the front of all of our buildings but they can be a pain to keep clean! Thank goodness for the Window Washers, they never let us down!
Our participants know that it feels good to take care of other people and things so we appreciate the therapy of taking care of our plants! By watering both the indoor and outdoor plants in and around Connections, they keep us green and vibrant!

Work Ready

The goal of many of our participants is to have some form of employment. Work Ready is a great opportunity for those participants to learn some new skills, familiarize themselves with what is involved in having a job, and prepare themselves for the working world!