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Training puts good jobs in reach for young adults

Posted: Dec. 10, 2005

Matthew Brewer left home at 16.

Faces of Hope

Photo/Gary Porter Matthew Brewer, 19, prepares a welding rod to work on a diesel fuel tank at Tramont Corp. Brewer is a graduate of the Job Corps program, where he learned how to become a skilled welder. Job Corps "totally changed my life," Brewer says.

Job Corps

Mission: To help economically disadvantaged young adults become responsible, employable and productive citizens by providing them with opportunities to develop the vocational educational and social skills needed to succeed in the jobs of today and tomorrow Address: 611 W. National Ave., Esperanza Unida International Building Phone: (414) 649-9044

About This Feature

"Faces of Hope" focuses on people in the Milwaukee area who need a hand and the agencies that are helping them. Ideas? Call: Urban Affairs Editor James E. Causey, (414) 224-2318, or e-mail jcausey@journal sentinel.com.

Afraid her stepson would become a negative statistic, his stepmother persuaded him to join Job Corps.

"At first, I didn't understand," said Brewer, who spent the next two and a half years of his life hundreds of miles away from his Milwaukee home, living at the Blackwell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center - a comprehensive residential education and job training program in Laona for at-risk youth.

"It totally changed my life," Brewer says.

While at the center, Brewer received free room and board while earning his high school diploma and driver's license and studying to become a skilled welder.

Now 19, Brewer is back in Milwaukee and earlier this year landed a welding job at Tramont Corp., a manufacturing company where he builds tanks for generators and earns $13.25 an hour.

"Job Corps helped me a lot," Brewer said. "They taught us how to be independent and prepared us on how to be in an interview, how to answer questions. It was worth it. I wouldn't have the nice-paying job that I have now."

Although it has been around for more than four decades, Job Corps, a federally funded program, has over the years become a closely held secret, said Carla Knapp, the program's admissions counselor for Milwaukee.

"The biggest problem is people not knowing about the program," said Knapp, who is working to get the word out. "We are putting young productive citizens back out there with skills to get jobs."

Best behavior expected

To qualify for the program, participants must range in age from 16 to 24, meet poverty guidelines and be willing to relocate on a moment's notice. Homeless youth and those aging out of foster care are given priority.

Because Job Corps is a self-paced program, the length of enrollment varies, from about seven months to two years, or three if participants are in advanced training.

If prospective students have had trouble with the law, the program will assist them in cleaning up any unresolved issues, such as paying fines. People who have had felony convictions can also be accepted into the program.

"We don't shut the door on anybody. We are always encouraging them to do better," Knapp said. "Judges in the city look favorably upon kids trying to get into the program. If someone has a felony, it has to be 2 years old and they have to show six months of good behavior. We work with them."

However, once participants are enrolled in the program and are at the Job Corps site, there is very little patience for disruptive behavior, she said.

"If they get kicked out, then they are done," Knapp said.

Job Corps has 122 sites throughout the nation, which is broken into regions. Participants must train at sites within their region; Wisconsin is in Region 5.

Another site will be added to the region when a site in Milwaukee comes on line, said Milwaukee Housing Authority Executive Director Tony Perez, who worked on the application to land the site.

Help for single parents

Perez said the site previously was being planned for 23 acres on E. College Ave., just west of S. Pennsylvania Ave., but the location has since changed.

"The site that they are now looking at is a potential parcel on the northwest side of town," Perez said.

Perez said the site is expected to be acquired early next year. "I see it as catalytic," he said.

Milwaukee's site would be the newest in the region that has a solo-parent program where single mothers or fathers can live with their children. Another site is in Iowa, which has a waiting list. The Milwaukee site will have room for about 300 participants.

"I am eager to go," said Shirl Hart, who lives in Milwaukee and has two children, ages 4 and 2. The single mother, who has been on the waiting list for several months, has been accepted into the Iowa program and promised a spot when one becomes available.

"I want to be educated," said Hart, who dropped out of high school to raise her children. "I want a second chance to be the best mother I can be for my kids."

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