PUC Opens Napa Valley Community Resource Center

Pacific Union College announces the grand opening of the Napa Valley Community Resource Center, a facility for educational resources located at 25 Executive Court, Napa, near the intersection of Highways 12 and 29. The center will provide educational opportunities for Napa and the surrounding communities, including teacher credentialing and adult education programs. The center, first proposed in 1996, is funded in part by a grant adminestered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It was made possible by the help of many members of congress including Congressman Mike Thompson.

The resource center is already used nightly by PUC's degree completion program. It houses six groups of adult students who are completing degrees in business management or early childhood education. They have used classrooms in the building since the beginning of March.

PUC is also working with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to supply credentialing programs for Napa area teachers. Beginning in the fall, the resource center will be a central site, providing course-work, classroom supervision, mentoring, and other more-more -more training necessary to equip community teachers-many of whom have been hired on an emergency basis-with the full credentials required by the state.

The Napa Valley Resource Center will host a number of public educational services in the future, including technological education and computer software training. The college is already working with the Napa Valley Economic Development Corporation, Napa Valley College, the Napa Adult School, and others on a program that will give critical training in common office software, internet use, and the inter-personal skills required to apply them in the workplace. PUC is also exploring other uses for the center which will contribute to Napa's corporate environment.

Gary Gifford, director of PUC's extended learning program, says, "The building has Pacific Union College on the front if it, but we want to make this facility available to other people and other institutions that need a space to provide services to the community."