‘Everyone’s just scared’: Clearfield Job Corps students brace for facility’s closure

KAYSVILLE — Nike Reifenberger’s life has been full of tumult.

As a child, his mom, reliant on housing vouchers, moved him and his older sister around frequently — Millcreek, West Jordan, Midvale and other cities. He said he later moved in with his grandparents because of his mother’s struggles with drugs, and after the elder couple died when he was in his early teens, he transitioned to foster care. His dad is out of the picture.

Now, as a student at the Clearfield Job Corps program, he once again faces upheaval in the wake of the U.S. Department of Labor decision to shutter 99 contractor-operated Job Corps centers around the country, including the Davis County facility.

“They’re throwing us out of the nest,” said Reifenberger, 19.

It’s been hard at times to get concrete information since last week’s announcement, but he and the other Clearfield students have been told they need to “evacuate” the facility — that’s Job Corps terminology — by June 12. According to the Department of Labor, the 99 facilities need to be closed by June 30.

The Job Corps program has historically been geared to students from lower-income backgrounds contending with homelessness and other issues, offering them a means of getting a vocational education and a path toward a productive future. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, however, said a “fiscal analysis” of the program determined it is “no longer achieving the intended outcomes,” leading to last week’s announcement that the initiative will be ended.

It’s the latest of a string of cuts under President Donald Trump to scale back federal spending.

Some 25,000 students nationwide are currently enrolled in the program, including 726 in Clearfield, and Reifenberger’s story offers a glimpse into the personal impact of the Job Corps move. A 2023 graduate of West Jordan High School, he turned to the program after withdrawing from Utah Valley University in Orem because of a loss of grant funding that had helped him with his costs there.

“It’s been nice. I felt secure here. I felt like it was safe,” said Reifenberger, who enrolled in Job Corps last January and has been studying automation and robotics through Davis Technical College in Kaysville. He lives in a dorm on the Job Corps campus and gets support from program staffers, while Job Corps, which offers training in some trades at the Clearfield facility, covers the costs at Davis Tech.

Some Clearfield Job Corps students, who come from around the country, are indifferent to the news that the program will be shuttered. For most, though, the turn of events has been stressful and traumatic, said Reifenberger.

“Everyone’s just scared of what’s going to happen next. We’re being kicked out, and we don’t know where we’re going to go,” he said.

Some say they worry about returning to their homes outside Utah, given the presence of gangs in their hometown neighborhoods. Others don’t have anywhere to go or previously faced abuse in their homes and are leery of returning. Job Corps is making transportation arrangements to return those who have family to their relatives, Reifenberger said, while those who don’t have anywhere to go will be taken to area homeless shelters.

“Students must be at their new place of residence by (the end of the day) Friday, June 13, unless they are homeless, in which case staff will help them find other housing arrangements,” said Emily Lawhead, spokeswoman for Management and Training Corp., the contractor that runs the Clearfield program.

“We have identified 40 students who are at-risk of homelessness, including three students who are minors. If a minor’s family cannot be contacted, our staff will work with (the Utah Division of Child and Family Services) to help them find a place to live after Job Corps,” she said.