South Fulton leaders demand reversal on Job Corps program cuts

Caption

The abandoned site of the Atlanta Job Corps training center where construction was never completed.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

The Atlanta metro Job Corps is one of several Georgia locations notified this week that federal funding would be cut and the program will be shut down. Leaders in South Fulton are asking for help to minimize the impact on at-risk youth who were enrolled.

Over 400 students and 140 staff will be affected by the closure of this Job Corps center. Many students in the program rely on it to provide housing, financial stability, and vocational training. 

Manager Janita Beckles is facing unemployment after 16 years with Job Corps, but she’s more worried about the students.

“We have hundreds that have nowhere to go,” Beckles said. “We are trying to bring awareness and advocacy before these young people are displaced and unsheltered and leave off of our campuses nationwide.”

Karla Harris is a recent Job Corps graduate who found stable housing and a career though the program. She said for many of her peers this job training was their only plan.

“When they told them that it's going to be at a pause, everybody looked hopeless. Literally, looked hopeless,” Harris said.

The abrupt end of the Job Corps program nationwide now leaves South Fulton with an unfinished training center. The U.S Department of Labor began construction in 2017, but the 25-acre site has been abandoned since 2019 after a dispute between Job Corps and the contractor.

South Fulton City Councilmember Helen Willis said as recently as 2023 DOL promised to bring the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to finish construction.

“The abandoned site now that sits behind me reflects federal failure, draining the surrounding community of opportunity and safety, while standing as a visible source of urban blight and potential crime and vulnerability at the site,” she said.

Willis is now demanding the project be completed or ownership be transferred to the city for revitalization. The project was a $50 million center that would serve 500 students across 11 buildings with dorms, classrooms, medical clinics, and recreational spaces.

South Fulton city leaders are calling on residents, clergy, labor unions, and other elected officials to support the effort to hold federal leaders accountable. The council will put forward a resolution asking the federal government to restore funding to the program created by Congress in 1964.