One Investment, Four Years of Impact: How CVOC Is Transforming Farmworker Futures in Stanislaus County

Ashley Garcia grew up watching her father weld. She spent years working seasonally in agriculture before finding her way to Central Valley Opportunity Center — first to earn her GED, then to enroll in CVOC’s Welding Training Program. She graduated, earned her AWS Certification, completed an on-the-job training with a local employer, and was hired on the spot.

Today she is building a career and a future for her daughter on her own terms.

“The circumstances do not matter,” Ashley says, “because you can make it happen. Be consistent.”

Her story is one of hundreds that CVOC has made possible — and it is exactly the kind of story that Stanislaus 2030 set out to help create when it first invested in the organization.

An Organization Built for the Communities Others Overlook

Central Valley Opportunity Center was incorporated as a community-based nonprofit in May of 1979 and has since served over 100,000 individuals across Stanislaus, Merced, and Madera counties. With nearly 50 years of history, a team of 100 employees, and a service footprint stretching from the foothills of Amador and Tuolumne counties down through the heart of the Central Valley, CVOC touches approximately 20,000 lives a year — and importantly, when Jorge De Nava, CVOC’s Executive Director, counts impact, he counts households, not just individuals.

CVOC’s work spans emergency food and rental assistance, ESL instruction, GED preparation, vocational training, on-the-job training, case management, job placement, and long-term career retention follow-up. These aren’t siloed services — they are a coordinated pathway, designed to carry participants from wherever they are starting to wherever they are trying to go. CVOC has long partnered with federal, state, and local funders to do this work, running major programs through the Department of Labor, the California Department of Community Services and Development, and local government partners.

Proving the Model With Local Dollars First

CVOC was an inaugural partner of Stanislaus 2030. In 2022, Stanislaus County directed $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds toward CVOC's expansion of the National Farmworker Jobs Program — a direct result of the Stanislaus 2030 Investment Blueprint, which identified farmworker workforce development as a critical regional priority. Stanislaus County Workforce Development managed the contract, ensuring accountability and alignment with the county's broader economic recovery goals. Participants received vocational training and career services, developmental education, wraparound case management and supportive services, and full job placement support over two years. CVOC fulfilled that commitment entirely.

But Jorge is quick to point out that “100 participants” only tells part of the story. “It’s not just 100 individuals that we served — it’s a household. That first million-dollar investment was 100 on paper, but it was far more than 100 people.”

When the program wrapped and it was clear there was no additional local funding available, Jorge didn’t stop. He took what Stanislaus 2030 had helped him build and used it as evidence.

“We proved the model with local dollars. Then leveraged that for another million dollars from the state to keep the program going.”

That first state match funded another 100 farmworkers in Stanislaus County with the same comprehensive model. Before that cohort concluded, CVOC secured yet another $1 million from the state, extending the program an additional two years and serving yet another 100 participants. The result: Stanislaus 2030’s initial county investment has since catalyzed $2 million in additional state funding, sustaining four years of continued services to farmworkers and their families across the region.

Building on the Foundation — Work-Based Learning and Community Engagement

Stanislaus 2030’s partnership with CVOC grew beyond that first investment. Through the Stanislaus County Workforce Development competitive grant process, CVOC was awarded an additional grant to build out a work-based learning program — creating structured pathways for participants to gain real employer experience as part of their career transition journey.

Then, recognizing that reaching the right participants requires more than a flyer, Stanislaus 2030 provided a $15,000 community engagement grant. CVOC used it thoughtfully. Working with the facilitation team at Debrief, they held focus groups and genuine conversations with current and prospective participants, asking a simple question: what would actually help you take the first step? The answer was clear. People didn’t want to hear from administrators or program staff. They wanted to hear from someone who had been exactly where they were — and made it through.

Listening First — Then Telling the Right Stories

That community insight became the foundation for something new. CVOC developed a storytelling series to feature a growing collection of real participant experiences, shared in participants’ own words, designed to reach prospective enrollees with the kind of authenticity that no program brochure can replicate. Ashley Garcia’s story is one of them.

Her journey from seasonal farmworker to AWS-certified welder, told in her own voice — “The circumstances do not matter, because you can make it happen” — is precisely the kind of message that lands with someone sitting on the fence about whether a program like this is really meant for them.

It is. And now they know it, because someone who looks like them said so.

A Whole-Person Approach That Gets Results

What makes CVOC’s model work isn’t any single program. It’s the philosophy that runs through all of them.

CVOC serves farmworkers going in two directions. Some want to stay in agriculture and advance within it by gaining new skills that lead to higher wages and more stable work. Others are ready to leave the field entirely, whether because of the physical toll of the work, the uncertainty of seasonal employment, or simply the pull of a different future. CVOC is built to support both paths without asking people to choose before they’re ready.

For those pursuing new careers, the approach is patient and practical. If someone wants to break into industrial maintenance but doesn’t yet have a high school credential, CVOC doesn’t put training on hold. A participant might spend five hours a day in a vocational course, one hour in ESL, and one hour in GED preparation — moving forward on all fronts at once. It takes a bit longer. But they arrive at the end with everything they need to stay employed and keep growing.

“We build them up along the way,” Jorge says. “That’s how we help them secure the career at the end.”

When asked whether placement has been difficult given economic headwinds in the region, his answer was direct: “Placement hasn’t been a problem. The whole-person model makes the difference.”

What One Investment Can Become

CVOC’s story is one of the clearest illustrations yet of what Stanislaus 2030 was designed to do. A $1 million county investment — used to prove a model, serve 100 families, and demonstrate what’s possible — became the foundation for $2 million in state follow-on funding, a new work-based learning program, and a community-driven storytelling initiative that is bringing more people through the door than ever before.

Behind every number is a person. A farmworker who aged out of field work and found a new path in manufacturing. A young woman who grew up watching her father weld and decided she could do it too. A family whose sense of stability shifted because one person got the right support at the right moment.

That is what Stanislaus 2030 is investing in. And at CVOC, the returns are only growing.

Central Valley Opportunity Center (CVOC) is a Stanislaus 2030 implementation partner serving Stanislaus, Merced, and Madera counties. To learn more about CVOC’s programs, visit cvoc.org or call (209) 577-3210