Staff Spotlight April 2021
Rita Christiansen is the Coordinator of Skills Training at Inroads to Opportunities. She is the person in charge to ensure that the Cafeteria, Inroads General Store (Market Central) and the Janitorial Department are updated with current training, safety standards, permits and inspections and the certificates that their Department calls for.
Q- Tell us about your journey at Inroads to Opportunities?
A- I started working at Inroads in October of 2004 and was hired as both Cafeteria Manager and Market Central supervisor. As time went on, my position expanded and my responsibilities included the janitorial department, which transitioned into my current position for our pre-training programs. Primarily my job is overseeing the smooth operation and to encourage our participants to seek competitive employment when they are finished with our training program.
Q-What are the main challenges that you face as Coordinator of Skills Training at Inroads?
A-I would have to say that my main challenge is dealing with state and federal guidelines, ensuring that my department follows the mandates explicitly. Also I need to make sure that the federal and state paperwork are correct.
Q-Would you like to describe your best day at work?
A- It’s definitely the most worthwhile work that I have ever done, but I have to say that my best days would be when everybody in all my departments shows up on time and stay all day.
Q- What is something that can only happen at Inroads?
A- The fun aspect is celebrating participants birthdays here. They really get a lot of mileage out of that cake and singing the song and being in the center of attention and this does not happen in too many employment situations.
Q- How has this year been in your perspective?
A- Well, it’s been tumultuous, unique and stressful. It still seems to be evolving. Since we did not have our participants, we were not doing the full lunch service for the school lunch program, so for a long time I just organized and cleaned the kitchen. When later on the temps came in, there was coffee service for them and we expanded that to includes sandwiches, but we really didn’t do a lot of business because most of them bring lunch from home. We are still not up to speed but it’s encouraging to see the participants faces and hopefully things get back to normal soon.
Q- What does Inroads look like to you in 5 years from now?
It’s going to look very different I think, especially because of changing federal mandates. I think we are going to be relying a lot more heavily on training programs.
Q- Who is Rita in 3 words?
Organized, Hard-working and dependable.
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