{"id":371030,"date":"2026-07-13T12:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371030\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:16:11","slug":"dallas-nonprofit-helps-adults-train-for-better-jobs-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371030\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas nonprofit helps adults train for better jobs, careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeny\u00a0Alvarez\u00a0spent a recent Thursday morning wrapping a blood pressure<\/a> cuff around a classmate’s arm, carefully listening\u00a0for\u00a0the pulse she had only read about in textbooks\u00a0until now.<\/p>\n

For the 34-year-old mother of four, every lesson in the clinical medical assistant<\/a> program\u00a0represents\u00a0a\u00a0step toward a career\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0wanted for years while juggling\u00a0work\u00a0as a\u00a0nonprofit\u00a0community coordinator\u00a0and\u00a0caring for her family.<\/p>\n

“Let me take my shot\u00a0at\u00a0going back to school,”\u00a0Alvarez\u00a0said. “It’s never too late.”<\/p>\n

That opportunity comes through the Wilkinson Center, a Dallas nonprofit that helps residents build economic mobility through education, workforce training and wraparound support.<\/p>\n

The center partnered with Texas Woman’s University<\/a>,\u00a0Northwest Community Center<\/a>\u00a0and Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas to train students for careers as clinical medical assistants and\u00a0to\u00a0connect them to four-week externships with local healthcare providers.<\/p>\n

The 20-week program in Vickery Meadow is one example of how\u00a0United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ Pathways to Work<\/a>\u00a0initiative reaches neighborhoods through nonprofit partners like Wilkinson Center, helping adults overcome barriers that often stand between them and higher-paying careers.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0workforce training is only one piece of a broader mission\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0Wilkinson\u00a0Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Economic mobility is the critical piece,”\u00a0Wilkinson Center\u00a0Executive Director\u00a0Daley Ryan<\/a>\u00a0said. “Providing economic opportunity that leads to economic mobility for families is what Wilkinson Center is here to do.”<\/p>\n

Founded in 1982, the Dallas nonprofit has evolved from a church food pantry into an organization that combines food\u00a0assistance, adult education, workforce\u00a0training\u00a0and employment services under one roof. The idea, Ryan said, is that helping someone find a better-paying job often begins by solving the problems that make staying in school or keeping a job difficult in the first place.<\/p>\n

Related: America at 250: North Texans weigh a changing American Dream<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilkinson Center\u00a0clients can receive food\u00a0assistance, case management, transportation help, financial\u00a0coaching,\u00a0and career counseling alongside workforce training. Even after participants land jobs,\u00a0the center continues checking in with graduates and employers to help them succeed.<\/p>\n

Last year alone, the organization served more than\u00a020,000 clients, provided workforce readiness training to 305 people, delivered 110 industry\u00a0certifications,\u00a0and placed 101 participants into new jobs. About 90% of students completed their workforce training programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They act like\u00a0a true partner,” Ryan said. “They want to know where the challenges are, where the soft spots are.”<\/p>\n

Those partnerships are what brought\u00a0Alvarez\u00a0into the classroom.<\/p>\n

She\u00a0learned about the program after a friend shared it on Facebook. Going back to school while working full time and raising four children felt intimidating, but she decided the opportunity was worth pursuing.<\/p>\n

“As a mom of four, that can be a little like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m really doing this,'” she said. “But I was really excited.”<\/p>\n

Her days\u00a0now\u00a0revolve around work,\u00a0parenting,\u00a0and studying whenever she can find a spare moment. Sometimes she listens to\u00a0course\u00a0material while cooking dinner. Other times she studies during her children’s practices or late at night after the house quiets down.<\/p>\n

“It’s just going to be where it has to come,” she said.\u00a0“How badly do you want it?”<\/p>\n

The program removes many of the financial obstacles that often prevent adults from returning to school. Students receive laptops, medical scrubs, resume\u00a0assistance, mock\u00a0interviews,\u00a0and other career preparation services, allowing them to focus on completing the coursework rather than worrying about expenses.<\/p>\n

That kind of support, academic supervisor Edda Hagar said, often determines whether students finish.<\/p>\n

“When students see that you care,” she said, “the rest is history.”<\/p>\n

The model reflects a broader workforce strategy United Way has promoted across North Texas, pairing short-term credential programs with wraparound support and direct connections to employers in industries facing worker shortages.<\/p>\n

Alvarez\u00a0said that beyond\u00a0landing a new job\u00a0thanks to her forthcoming certification, she hopes to continue into nursing school.\u00a0She wants to\u00a0work\u00a0with people who have physical or intellectual disabilities, inspired in part by one of her daughters, who has special needs.<\/p>\n

Just as important, she wants her children to see education doesn’t end with adulthood.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s never too late to learn,”\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

That lesson, she hopes, extends beyond her own family.<\/p>\n

“Get involved in your community,”\u00a0Alvarez\u00a0said. “Invest into your community, because your community will invest back into you.”<\/p>\n

Wilkinson Center expects to celebrate more than 150 graduates from its adult education and workforce certification programs later this month, highlighting the growing pipeline of North Texans moving into new careers through partnerships like Pathways to Work.<\/p>\n

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas<\/a>, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News\u00a0retains\u00a0full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeny\u00a0Alvarez\u00a0spent a recent Thursday morning wrapping a blood pressure cuff around a classmate’s arm, carefully listening\u00a0for\u00a0the pulse she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,96674,102,104,103,223,100451,93339,87998,89138,89396,97647,89146,89147],"class_list":["post-371030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-business-jobs","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news","tag-news-inspired","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-county","tag-tp-ed-lab-college-career","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-healthcare","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-workforce","tag-tp-workforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}