City of Victorville to host job fair for new Wellness Center

Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press
·2 min read
City leaders have announced a hiring event on Friday, Nov. 3 as they prepare to open its Wellness Center in the next few months in downtown Victorville.
City leaders have announced a hiring event on Friday, Nov. 3 as they prepare to open its Wellness Center in the next few months in downtown Victorville.

City leaders have announced an upcoming hiring event as they prepare to open its Wellness Center in the next few months in downtown Victorville.

Hope the Mission and Symba Center, the operators of the Wellness Center, will host the job fair from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3 at the Victorville Activities Center, 15075 Hesperia Road in Victorville.

Available positions include:

  • Medical assistant

  • Psychiatric nurse practitioner

  • Family nurse practitioner

  • Case manager/Housing navigator

  • Licensed Vocational Nurse

  • Registered Nurse Case Manager

  • Client services monitor

  • Intake specialist

Many full-time positions include paid vacation and sick leave, health and life insurance, 401K and an employee assistance program.

City leaders have announced a hiring event on Friday, Nov. 3 as they prepare to open its Wellness Center in the next few months in downtown Victorville.
City leaders have announced a hiring event on Friday, Nov. 3 as they prepare to open its Wellness Center in the next few months in downtown Victorville.

The Wellness Center

Located on First Street in downtown Victorville, the interim housing, supportive service, and recuperative care facility will help stabilize the lives of families and homeless individuals, city officials said.

The facility will offer 110 separate modular units with a minimum 170-bed capacity increasing shelter beds by 56% while also providing healthcare and other supportive services to help end the cycle of homelessness.

The Wellness Center is being funded primarily through a $28 million grant from the state of California.

Hope the Mission

Hope the Mission will offer services including client intake coordination, hygiene services, laundry, meals, security, janitorial services, transportation, and peer engagements.

Hope the Mission, formerly known as Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, is run by founder and President/CEO Ken Craft, who has 14 years of experience providing a variety of shelter operations.

Under its management, Hope has more than 1,000 shelter beds within Southern California.

Symba Center

Symba Center has been selected to provide wraparound services including recuperative care, medical and behavioral health services, job readiness and placement, financial literacy, case management, housing navigation, and substance-use-disorder counseling.

Symba Center, under the direction of Dr. Shawn Smith, has provided medical services to Victorville’s unsheltered residents as well as medical and mental health oversight to local homeless shelters, including the establishment of COVID-19 safety protocols during the pandemic.

One of the center’s most unique features will be the inclusion of medical services and recuperative care, an extremely challenging component of wellness for homeless individuals who lack proper shelter and access to ongoing medical care for wounds, illness, and other ailments, city leaders said. 

Local hospitals will be able to discharge homeless individuals directly to the Wellness Center medical clinic to receive the recuperative care they need to recover while freeing much-needed hospital beds.

With expenses reimbursed through Medi-Cal, the medical clinic and recuperative care will be self-sustaining services.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: City of Victorville to host job fair for new Wellness Center