Project QUEST, Inc.
Francisco Martinez has a diverse work experience spanning over several organizations and roles. Francisco currently holds the position of Director of Development and Community Partnerships at Project QUEST, Inc., where they are responsible for various aspects of business development and relationship building. Prior to this, they worked as a Community Engagement Manager at Unite Us, where they focused on connecting health and social care organizations through a platform. Francisco also served as a Community Affairs Specialist at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma & Texas, where they managed local and statewide projects and supported different lines of business. Francisco'sprevious experience includes roles such as Family Specialist at NEISD, Founder & Principal Advisor at South Texas PreCollege Advisors, Coordinator at the City of San Antonio, and Executive Director at Keep San Antonio Beautiful. Furthermore, they worked in the City of Los Angeles as a Legislative Aide & District Director and as an Assembly Fellow in the California State Assembly.
Francisco Martinez obtained their College Counseling Certificate from UCLA in 2008. Prior to that, from 2003 to 2006, they pursued a Master's degree in Public Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. In 2000, Francisco received a Fellowship in Government from California State University-Sacramento. Francisco completed their undergraduate education at UC San Diego, where they earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science in 1999.
Furthermore, Francisco Martinez has obtained a certification in Nonprofit Leadership Center Management Essentials Online Connection from The Allstate Foundation in October 2022.
Project QUEST, Inc.
Project QUEST (Quality Employment Through Skills Training), a primary economic development broker, provides critical support, expertise and resources to develop highly qualified employees for in-demand occupations that offer a living wage, benefits and a career path. QUEST’s success is shown in the impressive record of taking people with the most barriers to higher education, getting them into college and training for demand occupations, graduating them with strong academic records, and placing them with local employers, within a few months of their graduation. Since 1992, QUEST has prepared 5,600 adults for local workforce through customized services such as skills assessment, career mapping, personal counseling, academic remediation, financial assistance for college education, workplace training, and job placement. QUEST has a 86% job placement rate for its completers. Participants enter the program making on average $10,000 a year and graduate making an average of $40,000 a year. The long-term impact on the lives of our graduates is a testament to the strength of our model, and evidence of the effectiveness of our program. Equally important is the economic impact for the city. Within the first five years, every $1 put into QUEST has the return on investment of $15 for the community. A number of external studies have reviewed and evaluated the long-term success of programs such as QUEST, including recent studies by The Aspen Institute and the Ray Marshall Center at the University of Texas. The results of these studies inform our process for evaluating program effectiveness. The Generational Impact Study shows the effects of programs such as QUEST on the children of our graduates in more detail. Findings suggest that 90% of participants' children age 18 and over graduated from high school, and 75% have gone on to college.