Rebuilding Altadena: the Focus of the PCC EWD Future of Work Webinar Series

The city of Altadena was partially destroyed in the 2025 wildfires. The people of Altadena are determined to build it back to its former glory, if not more, so they’ve launched Rebuild Altadena to coordinate efforts into accomplishments. Achieving that goal, however, will take time, money, and a whole lot of patience. As a good neighbor, the City of Pasadena is deeply invested in helping its community cohort revive its presence, and Pasadena City College (PCC) is just one of its entities to have stepped up to the plate.

In response to the crisis, the California Community College is reorganizing its annual ‘Future of Work Conference’ into a series of webinars to educate and inform regional residents about the ongoing recovery effort. The three-part webinar series will share the excitement around the synergy arising from public and private investments, how ‘resilience’ will be built into the new systems, and how Southern California’s emerging construction industry workforce demands will be met. The first webinar happens Thursday, June 4th, from 10 AM to noon. Register for the series here – it’s free to join. 

Altadena Rising

The flames destroyed more than buildings; they also took out much of the area’s infrastructure and systems. Sewers, water supply, electrical conduits, and other grid-sized elements were eroded or destroyed altogether, and in many cases whole systems failed beyond repair, so replacing them will take time. Inspectors have already determined that most of those replacements should also be upgrades to today’s technological standards, in order to meet the emerging demands of near-term and future users. The ‘finished’ status of infrastructure assets will also guide the selection of materials and systems by home and corporate builders, because their choices must be compatible with the elements of the larger infrastructure. The ultimate recovery will demonstrate the success of the myriad collaborations now underway between business owners, contractors, city and county personnel, and other entities affected by the fires.

PCC is just one of those collaborators, but its participation and contributions aren’t insignificant. Early on, even while the fires burned, the school opened its campus to provide a variety of immediate services – parking, meeting places, resource distribution centers, and the like. And in January 2026, it broke ground for a new construction training facility aimed at educating the next wave of construction professionals and workers. The San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity organization has partnered with PCC to help both fire survivors and the school’s learner population rebuild the region while building their personal futures and careers.

PCC’s Future of Work Webinars: Rebuild Altadena!

The webinars take place over the course of three days: Thursday, June 4th, Thursday, September 3, and Thursday, November 5th.

The conversations will further the ongoing communications that are cycling through the community:

• What are Altadena’s most pressing issues now, and what tools are available to alleviate those?
• Who needs to be involved in these discussions? Who’s missing from this table?
• What resources are sufficient and available? What resources are needed but not yet accessible?
• How does the community collaborate to ensure all aspects of loss, growth, and opportunity are explored and addressed?

As a school, PCC is enthused about growing its student population, yes, but also about the opportunity to realign its courses and programs to meet the current and future needs of the Rebuild Altadena plan of action. That premise is well within the college’s mandate of providing workforce training for existing and emerging industries. As the Rebuild process moves forward, PCC will be deeply involved in designing and implementing new approaches to the building process, so that newly minted construction industry workers are fully qualified and trained for their first day on site.

June 4th: Webinar #1 – Public-Interest Rebuild and Community Delivery Systems

This conversation aims to educate viewers about how the multitude of service providers, industry professionals, civic leaders, and educational institutions are working together to develop an optimal recovery timeline and reimagined infrastructure. Their focus is on existing and emerging public services and service delivery systems and how those can be used moving forward.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the recovery process is determining which of these remaining assets are still viable. The past 18 months have been spent cleaning away fire detritus and discovering the full extent of the damage done to underground, ground-level, or overhead services. Those assets that remain in use must also be tested for their soundness and capacity, as well as their possible integration with the advanced technologies being contemplated for the final iteration. The questions that arise from these assessments will have different responses based on who is analyzing the concern. Following these developments over time also requires much collaboration, as emerging data can suggest when and where different courses of action will ultimately result in different outcomes.

September 3rd: Webinar #2 – Resilient Infrastructure and Environmental Recovery

There’s a silver lining around the cloud of smoke produced by the fires: the opportunity to reinvent what was but in an enhanced, more efficient, and environmentally friendly form. Much of Altadena’s infrastructure was over 75 years old, and it was rife with materials and substances that are now known to be toxic to humans. At the same time, climate change is forcing the industry to address the unforeseen realities of devastating floods, droughts,, and more fires, which are occurring at a faster pace than before and pose substantial risks of even greater devastation. Planning for these contingencies will be the center of this webinar.

November 5th: Webinar #3 – Rebuilding the Talent Pipeline

Not surprisingly, PCC’s Economic and Workforce Development Division (EWD) is as invested in growing the economy as it is supportive of student success. The fires have spurred a growth frenzy in the supply chains that feed the broader construction industry, and there is more work available in those fields and occupations now than ever before. As Altadena gets put back together, its residents, neighbors, and communities will all experience the financial growth that typically flows from this type of urban overhaul. New jobs, businesses, and even sub-industries, initiated by the flames but driven by strong recovery winds, will replace those lost and provide existing and newly trained workers with well-paying jobs and true career opportunities. How that talent pool grows will be the subject of the third PCC EWD webinar.