Jose Vasquez

Jose Vasquez is a Director of the Osborne Association’s Employment and Training Services, which offers a broad array of family-supportive and cognitive behavioral services. Mr. Vasquez has been directly and indirectly involved in helping hundreds of formerly incarcerated people get and keep permanent jobs. He completed a Sectors Practicum administered by Public/Private Ventures, and developed new sectoral approaches to Osborne’s employment services by studying food service transportation and green industries. Most importantly, he has been focusing on not only jobs, but also careers. Recognizing not only that the traditional one-stop system tends to provide entry-level, low-wage jobs that make it difficult for formerly incarcerated people to support their families, but also that green jobs look to be the wave of the future, Mr. Vasquez has developed and proposed a concept for a One Stop Green Career Center. To help make that concept a reality he has established, over the last few months, partnerships with numerous environmental and “green” businesses that can provide career ladders to formerly incarcerated people. As a result, Osborne, with a significant grant of stimulus funds, is about to launch a Green Career Center under his leadership. This center will insure that the green jobs revolution will not leave participants behind.

Given his record of building partnerships with a variety of stakeholders – employers, non-profit organizations, funders, and government agencies – Jose Vasquez is awarded the Bridge Builder Award.