YWCA Greater Los Angeles to create Job Corps' Urban Campus

Thursday January 21, 2010

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Daily News Wire Services:

The YWCA Greater Los Angeles received an $82 million federal economic stimulus grant to develop a Job Corps' Urban Campus in downtown Los Angeles, the organization announced Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Labor signed a 20-year, $82 million lease agreement for a 154,000 square foot building to be located in the downtown South Park business district.

The building will contain a library, computer lab, medical and dental clinic and infirmary, classrooms and residential units for 400 students.

The development is funded by the $700 billion-plus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and more than 900 construction jobs will be generated by the project.

"One of the most groundbreaking endeavors of the construction activity is that the Job Corps students will actually participate in the construction of the building," said YWCA GLA CEO Faye Washington. "We have approximately 60 apprenticeship slots for our Job Corps students to actively participate in the construction of their new campus."

The campus will provide for transitional housing for up to 24 months, while participants obtain jobs and implement the life skills they have learned.

"This center is strategically located to job centers at the hub of the downtown Los Angeles renaissance," Washington said. "Local downtown businesses will greatly benefit from our highly trained Job Corps graduates as future employees to remain competitive. We are even set up to allow local businesses who are serious about hiring our Job Corps students to provide us with training modules, so the students graduate with skills specific to their needs."

The YWCA GLA has served the Los Angeles area since 1894 and began administering the Los Angeles Job Corps Program in 1965. The program provides residential and non-residential programming at no cost to homeless, emancipated, and at-risk youth ages 16-24.

Construction of the seven-story building is to begin this month and will conclude in the fall of 2011.

"Now that our building is funded and paid for, I invite local businesses to partner with us on the funding of the programming," Washington said. "Charitable giving is the ultimate investment in our community, our country's quality of life, competitiveness and humanitarian leadership."

 

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