A special meeting at the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce this morning presented an update on local efforts to bring a CCC Forest Service Job Corp program to southern Gila County.
The federal government is expected to call for proposals within the next two months. Only two Job Corps centers are expected to be built in the near future in the entire United states. Only one of those will be a rural center.
The Job Corps program offers education and job training to young people between the ages of 16 and 24. The Civilian Conservation program differs from urban Job Corps in that it is a program of the US Forest Service and not a private contractor.
The annual budget for such a Job Corps center would be between $8 and $10 million. The center would employ up to 100 people. Up to 300 students could be in the program at any one time. A location southeast of Globe on Forest Service land has been identified as a possible location for the center.
In addition to the economic impact that a Job Corps center would bring to Globe, there is also the impact on young people who are not succeeding in the current programs that are available to them. Gila County Supervisor Shirley Dawson says that more than half the students who enter high school in southern Gila County do not graduate.
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