5 days ago
Job Corps leaders help students with transition before nationwide closure
Job Corps center leaders are now helping students transition before the program shutters in mid-June.
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'I'm going to hold on to that hope that maybe we'll get an extension, and we'll get more time,' Job Corps student Saebra Grannis told Channel 2's Audrey Washington on Tuesday.
'It was just such a crazy thing to see happen and go, all of a sudden,' Grannis added.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced it would pause contractor-led Job Corps centers across the country, including Georgia.
A Job Corps manager told Washington that students and staff have until mid-June to leave the centers for good.
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Saebra Gannis's mother, Melissa Thompson, said she was shocked.
'This was her last chance. Traditionally, going to a school wasn't going to work for her just based on how she learns,' Thompson explained.
The labor department cited financial issues as one of the main reasons for the pause.
The U.S. Department released the following statement to Channel 2 Action News:
'The Job Corps program has been in a financial crisis for years, creating constant uncertainty for participants and administrators.'
However, former Executive Center Director Lorraine Lane disputed that claim.
'Funds have been appropriated out to 2026. So, these centers are already funded,' Lane said.
Job Corps is a residential career training and education program that helps thousands of at-risk youth.
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Lane said she now worries how the pause will impact the current students.
'This is beyond devastation. This is reinforcing the trauma that some of these students have been working to overcome,' Lane explained.
'Thousands of young people that are losing their opportunities, losing their homes, their stability,' she added.
Right now, center leaders are helping students with the transition.
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'We have young adults who don't have homes, who are homeless. They came into Job Corps,' Lane said.
Local leaders will hold an emergency news briefing, Wednesday morning to address the federal elimination of the Atlanta-area Job Corps programs and the abandoned Job Corps Center in the City of South Fulton.
