National Job Corps 'pause' will affect nearly 800 in Albany
ALBANY – The abrupt announcement of a 'pause' of Job Corps operations across the country will be a big blow to Albany, where the current 510 students and nearly 300 staff members are looking at being off the campus by the end of next week.
On Friday morning all web pages related to Turner Job Corps had been scoured, replaced with a single entry that appeared on all pages titled 'Beyond Job Corps,' giving referrals to other options including the U.S. Department of Labor's CareerOneStop, federal Pell grants and the military.
The Labor Department has told Job Corps locations to have students and staff 'transitioned' off campus by June 6.
Job Corps provides free residential education and job training program for students ages 16-24.
'It's very devastating,' Albany City Commissioner Jon Howard, in whose Ward 2 the sprawling center is located, said. 'Those are people that are going to have to find somewhere to go and to find jobs. That's not as easy as people think, especially for those that are homeless. I'm depressed and sad it's happening.'
Of the student contingent, 19% are listed as housing-insecure or homeless, placing them in a potentially precarious position.
Howard said on Friday afternoon that he was reaching out to city staff to determine if there is anything that it can do on an emergency basis to assist those who are in need of a place to stay.
Coming on the heels of the announcement two weeks ago of the layoff of 535 workers at the Georgia-Pacific container board plant in Early County, the news is grim, state Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, said.
'It's another shock in southwest Georgia,' he said. 'With the closing of the Turner Job Corps … that organization has been there for a long time and it has had great success for a lot of individuals. It really is a blow for the Albany area and the region, and it's going to affect us again.'
After hearing about the announcement Thursday evening, the legislator said he has been in touch with Dougherty County officials as well as the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce..
'We've got to find out what's going on and see if there's anything we can do other than say we support them,' Greene said. 'We need to see how we can support them and be effective. We've just got to get together with our chamber folks and county and city and see what we can do.'
The number of students and employees affected in such a short timeframe is especially concerning, Greene said, especially with the closing coming so unexpectedly and with so little time to prepare. State officials were completely caught off guard by the Department of Labor's announcement.
'We have a lot of individuals who are going to end up in a bad posture,' Greene said, 'especially those homeless individuals. We have no place to house them at this particular time.'
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