Utah social service providers scramble to help youth impacted by Job Corps closure

CLEARFIELD — Social service providers say they’re working to help students being displaced as the result of an education and job training center in Davis County shutting down.

Nearly a hundred Job Corps centers nationwide are closing as the Trump administration scales back federal programs. Some providers in Utah who serve the homeless are getting swamped with calls trying to figure out what to do with some of the youth currently enrolled in Job Corps.

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Job Corps serves low-income youth and young adults, ages 16 to 24. Those students, who come from across the United States, live on site while they learn new skills and go to school.

But with the center closing this month, those students have to find somewhere else to go. Some of them are at risk of homelessness. Around 25,000 students across the country are enrolled in the Job Corps program. That includes more than 700 at the Clearfield facility where more than 300 people are employed.

Kristen Mitchell, executive director of Youth Futures in Ogden, told KSL TV her organization is working to house some of the students over the next few weeks. She said Youth Futures has received multiple calls from families and Job Corps staff trying to find housing for displaced program participants.

Another nearby provider, Open Doors in Clearfield, has been “inundated” with calls from panicked family members trying to figure out next steps for the students, assistant executive director Daneen Adams said.

Making matters more complicated, Adams added, is that Open Doors does not have the capacity to serve that particular age group of Job Corps enrollees.

“Right now, we’re in a fact-gathering mission. What is really going on? None of us know,” Adams said. “I think that’s the hardest part, especially when you have parents calling you from out of state, and you don’t even know what to tell them.”

Job Corps has been operating since the 1960s. The Trump administration said the program is not working anymore and losing money. It recently announced 99 contractor-operated centers across the country will close by the end of June, including the one in Clearfield.

But a group this week filed a lawsuit to try to force the administration to keep the centers open, Reuters reported.

“These kids have worked so hard to get where they’re at, and we don’t want to push them backward,” said Adams. “We want to move them forward.”

The closure comes at a difficult time for local social service providers who face budget constraints of their own. Mitchell said some of their federal funding at Youth Futures is frozen. She also said Job Corps has traditionally been one of the strongest facilities to place youth to help them transition from shelters, and it’s “very tough” to lose that.

Mitchell said she is trying to connect with federal and state legislators to tell them about the issue and the need for more funding.

The Utah Department of Workforce Services – Workforce Development released the following statement about the situation:

Job Corps has reached out to us, and we will be working with them to determine how we can best support both youth enrolled in Job Corps programs and employees who may lose their jobs. Our youth program may be able to help eligible youth complete their GED, earn a license, certificate or degree or enter the workforce through an internship or apprenticeship. For employees, we offer Rapid Response workshops and resources to help them access unemployment insurance, job search services, labor market information and temporary assistance, including temporary health care coverage that they may be eligible for.”

Read the original story at KSLTV.com.