Secretary Carson Designates HUD EnVision Center at Alamo Colleges' Eastside Education Training Center in San Antonio

Secretary Carson tours Alamo Colleges' Eastside Education Training Center, which received its EnVision Center designation on Dec.19, 2019.

(l-r) HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Mike Flores and Joe Alderete Jr., Vice Chair, Alamo Colleges' Board of Trustees with the Eastside Education Training Center's EnVision Center designation certificate.

Secretary Carson addresses the audience at the designation of Alamo Colleges' Eastside Education Training Center in San Antonio as an EnVision Center.

Secretary Carson spoke with students when he toured Alamo Colleges' Eastside Education Training Center (EETC) in San Antonio with the Colleges' Chancellor Dr. Mike Flores (c.). EETC was designated as an EnVision Center during the Secretary's Dec. 19, 2019, visit.

On December 19, 2019, HUD Secretary Ben Carson visited San Antonio and participated with Alamo Colleges officials and community partners in an EnVision Center designation event for Alamo Colleges' Eastside Education Training Center (EETC).

"EnVision Centers are a way to connect local resources with the people who need them the most," said Secretary Carson. "From job training classes to financial counseling, I see so many vital services being provided here that have an unimaginable impact on the lives of the people you help. I look forward to seeing the brighter futures the EETC will continue to bring to the San Antonio community."

In July 2015, San Antonio launched the Promise Zone to Work initiative in partnership with Alamo Colleges, Workforce Solutions Alamo, United Way, Goodwill industries and other workforce partners to provide Eastside residents with free job training opportunities. In November 2016, the one-stop EETC opened at the former Pfeiffer Elementary School.

Today, the EETC serves as a center of collaboration in the San Antonio community, bringing together more than 20 non-profit and government entities to provide job training and placement; re-entry services; literacy education; case management, including child care and transportation services; financial counseling and small business development counseling.

Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Mike Flores said at the event, "We are so pleased to have Secretary Carson with us today to see the importance of EETC to the community as recognized by its designation as an EnVision Center. It plays a key role in our efforts to provide economic and social mobility to our residents and their families, which in turn contributes to the economic prosperity of our community," The San Antonio EETC EnVision Center joins Region VI's two other ECs in Fort Worth, Texas, and Poteau Oklahoma (Choctaw Nation).

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