In May, the city approved a contract with the local worker center El Centro de Los Trabajadores Colorado, which will assist with the training and finding employment for the migrants.
“So they’ll leave after this program with a good job that’s going to be sustainable and they can actually support their family long term,” said Mayra Juárez-Denis, the executive director of the center. “All of that is under a worker-centered model, which is not just preparing the worker for a job, but also making sure they understand their rights, their workers rights, and all that is needed for them to be sustainable economically, financially and with the dignity of their work.”
On Monday, participants received laptops and an instructor explained that during the course they’d learn how to access the internet, send email and use apps like Microsoft Excel.
They were introduced to the first steps in the process of obtaining a certification for construction, health care, hospitality and service jobs. An instructor also explained minimum wage and hourly pay.
And they learned soft skills as well, like how to present oneself in the workplace and the importance of punctuality.
Edwin Antonio Sanchez Mora, 43, was a miner in his home country of Venezuela and now wants to train to work in construction and machinery.
“We arrived here disoriented and confused,” Sanchez Mora said as he sat in the front row of the classroom. “But now I believe we’re going to integrate here really well.”
“In six months, this is going to completely change our lives,” he said. “This is one of the best things that’s happened to us.”
Denver’s work training program is a shift from the model that New York, Chicago and Denver itself have used to address the surge of migrants into the cities since 2022 when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants north.
Struggling to accommodate migrant populations that have grown considerably over the past two years, they have housed people in hotels, tents and other makeshift shelters and scrambled to assemble social safety nets without devastating their budgets.
More than 42,000 people have arrived in Denver since 2022, though most have chosen to relocate to other cities, Denver officials have said.
Those enrolled in the Denver Asylum Seekers Program are migrants who were in Denver’s shelter system as of April and are applying for asylum, Ewing, the city spokesperson, said. By April, Denver had far fewer people in its shelter system than Chicago and New York City.
