1. Your generosity made 2015 a spectacular year;
with your help, we can do even more!
Learning trades that will last a lifetime!
Josh Manual says, “( ISDA’s Journeyman program) is a great
opportunity if your are motivated and stick to it. What we
are learning here is just as good as going to a trade school.”
Josh works as an apprentice and has been awarded with an
Outstanding Apprentice
Award through the state
of Arizona. With almost
three years under his belt,
Josh will be completing
our program in the next
few months and is
planning to pursue a
position with Pima
County upon completion.
Josh is now able to lend
his skill around town
working on houses, the
clinic, and other projects.
ISDA is celebrating our culture, community, & family!
2015 GED Class
In addition to academic studies, ISDA GED students
engage in activities that enhance their life skills and
creativity such as job skills training with work study,
small art projects, and cooking.
AmeriCorps NCCC
4Gs
Apprentices
International Day
of Peace 2015
Community Arts Gathering
A pop-up dinner at SDCC

2. The Sonoran Desert Conference Center is Open!
These Youth Programs Need Your Assistance
Thank YOU for Believing in Us!
Get Going, Get Growing
Get Going, Get Growing (the 4Gs) is a job
training program that is in its fourth year. The
4Gs have proven to be a great benefit to
its interns and the community. Not only
does this group learn an array of gardening
skills and implement them around the
various gardens sites in town, they also
learn essential job skills Unfortunately,
funds are scarce and not as many interns
can be hired as we would like. You could
help us hire another intern.
GED Work-Study
Mario Carreras is just
one of the many stu-
dents who participate
in the GED work study program. All are eager
to find employment. Consequently they are
placed with generous local businesses who
provide up to eight hours of employment
weekly. Funding for this employment comes
from ISDA. Examples of local work study sites
include: Sonoran Desert Conference Center,
Avita’s Boutique, Ajo Botanicals and the Ajo
landfill. Through this important partnership
with local business owners students earn mini-
mum wage while working at variety of job loca-
tions in various capacities. Although the work
study program is truly an important avenue for
developing these students' life skills, this is
also an area of reduced funding.
The newly opened Conference
Center was the first job training site
for the Apprenticeship Program!