New Job Corps center prepares youths for careers
Lavarre Buchanan (right) gets training on how to thread a pipe from HVAC instructor Dave Miller at the Milwaukee Job Corps Center.

Juan Silva smoothes a concrete floor at the center. The eight-building campus provides free educational and vocational skills training, as well as job placement counseling, to people ages 16 to 24.

By Georgia Pabst of the Journal Sentinel
June 27, 2011 |(12) Comments
Lavarre Buchanan, who grew up on the city’s north side, struggled to try to complete high school and work at a packaging and shipping company. Then he discovered he would be a father.
“I needed to focus on my future and get myself together,” he said. “I made up my mind that I had to better myself and I started looking at different programs.”
In January, he was among the first students to enter the brand new Milwaukee Job Corps Center, 6665 N. 60th St. that has now reached its capacity of 300 students.
In addition to earning his high school diploma, Buchanan, 23, is getting job training in heating, ventilation and air conditioning and feels hopeful about his future. He’s discovered leadership skills and serves as president of the student government on the beautiful, sprawling campus, which includes classrooms, training facilities, dormitories, a gym, cafeteria and other amenities.
The $28 million facility, built on 25 acres, is the 125th Job Corps center to open. Operated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Job Corps is the nation’s largest education and vocational job training system for economically disadvantaged youths and young adults between the ages of 16 and 24. Each year it serves an estimated 60,000 participants.
The program is free to those who get into the two-year program, which can be extended to three.
“Job Corps is not a handout, but a hand-up program to give the next level of opportunity, so that young people can support themselves and become taxpaying citizens,” center director Jim Roberts said. “Job Corps is a launch to give young people the opportunity to take a deep breath, a leap of faith and land on their own feet.”
On average, 87% of students nationally who complete the program go to work, college or the military, he said.
Despite what some think, Job Corps is not a detention center, he stressed.
“Most of our students have never had an interaction with law enforcement,” Roberts said.
To qualify for the program a person must meet federal poverty income guidelines and go through an admissions process, which includes an interview and a criminal-background check. No one with serious crimes or felonies is accepted.
Students are matched with a center that offers their preferred job training program, Roberts said. The Milwaukee center offers job training in welding, cement masonry, HVAC, certified nursing assistance, material handling and computer numerical control machines used in manufacturing, Roberts said.
In addition to an array of support services, students get job placement assistance when they complete Job Corps, a program that costs an average of $27,000 a year per student. The center is operated for the Labor Department under a contract with MINACT Inc., a private firm that runs other centers. The center has about 125 employees.
During the first six months of operation, about 55 students dropped out, Roberts said.
“There’s a lot of structure and some students found the program longer or harder than they had expected. Some just weren’t right for the program based on their behavior,” he said.
But there’s also a waiting list of 75 for the center, he said. About 57% of the students at the center are from Wisconsin and 45% from Milwaukee, Roberts said.
About half of the students arrive with a high school diploma, he said.
“Many weren’t ready, education-wise, to get their high school diploma, or were trying to go to college but couldn’t afford it,” he said.
Chasity Rogers, 23, of St. Louis, Mo., graduated from high school and had a job she liked selling appliances. When she lost the job, she started attending a community college. But that meant working two jobs, one at Walmart and one at McDonald’s, to get by. She said she just couldn’t keep up with the grueling schedule.
“I tried college, but I couldn’t get financial aid and I couldn’t pay for it and I needed something,” she said. Rogers is now in the certified nursing program.
“I feel this is the best decision I ever made,” she said. “I’ve learned so much about myself, and life and opportunity.” One day she wants to own her own business.
Andrew Sommer, 20, of Bettendorf, Iowa, said he was in the “stagnating phase” working at movie theaters and car washes.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong; I just saw no direction,” he said. “The center was a perfect fit because it’s new and it’s offering me a new path at a new career.”
He’s in the welding program, which he calls “awesome.” Ultimately, he wants to be a welding engineer, he said.
Juan Silva, 24, of Waukegan, Ill., finished high school and was attending college but couldn’t balance two full-time jobs and classes.
“I rushed to get into Job Corps because I was 24, the cutoff age,” he said.
He’s in the cement masonry program, but also likes art and eventually would like to become an architect.
“I’m thankful to Job Corps for the opportunity,” he said. “I want to improve and be a success.”
As she watches over the young people looking to find their way, Vera Ford, director of residential living at the center, can relate. A native of Milwaukee and a graduate of King High School, she was 16 when she went to the Job Corps center in Los Angeles.
That was 1965 and Job Corps had just started admitting women, she said. She became a licensed practical nurse and returned to work at Milwaukee hospitals. Through the years she’s worked in Washington, D.C., and held various positions with Job Corps at centers in New Jersey, Maine and Oklahoma.
Now at 63, she said she’s excited about working at the new center. “I’m glad to return home.”
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