 Think Tecawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Welcome to Finding Respect in the Chaos on ThinkTecawaii.com. I am so happy to have you here. And I'm really happy to have a guest with me today. This is Julie Dugan from the Job Corps. And one of the things that happens, you know, with kids that have been involved in domestic violence at their homes, they need to have some opportunities. And Job Corps provides those kind of opportunities. And so we're going to talk with Julie today about some of those opportunities for kids. So Julie, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It's very nice to have you here. So I know that Job Corps was started by President Lyndon Johnson, which blows me away. I had no idea. Something about the war on poverty is when he decided to come up with that. Correct. And so what an amazing program. And so if it was him that started it, you guys have been around for a really long time. I would love to hear a little bit of history about how Job Corps got started and a little bit more about what you guys do and stuff. Sure. Well, Job Corps is a nation's premier career and technical training program. And like you said, it was started through the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. And it included programs like Job Corps, but also programs that are still around, such as Community Health Centers, the Head Start program, Adult Basic Education. Oh my goodness. Right. I didn't even have any idea that all of those things are sort of in the same bubble, so to speak, right? Correct. Trying to lift people up from poverty. And like I said, all those programs are still going strong. Oh my gosh, I hope our new leader doesn't 86 them since that's what he seems to want to do. But we won't get political. Okay, let's just talk about the good stuff. Actually, I think we have a video that we can show even about Job Corps. It kind of gives a little bit of background to it. I think that we might want to watch. If you could queue up that video, that'd be great. But the price of admission isn't money. It's the desire to succeed. Success takes skill. Skill takes training. Training takes work. If you're ready to learn, train, and work, Job Corps is ready for you. These Job Corps students can tell you it's real. Job Corps. Careers begin here. Oh my gosh, that was a wonderful video. Wow, so amazing. And just to see these kids that are working so hard to try to make themselves better. Now I know in the past it used to be kind of considered a program for troubled kids, but it's really morphed way and grown way beyond that now, right? Right. Again, it started with a war on poverty, trying to give young people opportunities to get out of that, those income levels. But it's really evolved. Over the years it was maybe someone that was in trouble with the law or wasn't making it in school, they'd say go to Job Corps. That didn't work if the young people didn't want to be there. So it has evolved into a complete volunteer program. Young people, so we work with young adults, 16 to 24, from low income backgrounds that are in need of education, maybe finishing their high school diploma and need of some job skills. Right. So how do they have to go about that then? Do they have to apply? What's the application process like? They do. So we have admissions counselors all over and they're out in the schools. People ask me what a typical profile of a Job Corps student is. We have high school graduates that might not be able to go on to a community college or vocational tech school. Job Corps might be an opportunity. We have high school dropouts that realize I can't get a decent job these days without a high school diploma. So we're out there spreading the Job Corps message wherever young people are and their influencers as we call them. They're Ohana, their aunties, their uncles, their career counselors at schools. Wherever young people are we're out there spreading the message. Thank you. Because I'm always saying we got to get them young. We got to teach kids young if we want them to grow up to be adults that know how to treat people with respect. And part of that is learning how to respect themselves, right? Right. Because that's a big thing. I was a minister in the south for many years and I worked with kids for about six years, intercity kids. And one of my favorite kids ended up going to Job Corps because of that exact same reason. She didn't have an abusive household. Her mom beat her and offered her up as a whatever to all of her boyfriends that ended up raping her. And so she just grew up in hell, but she knew she wanted to get a better life for herself. And so she ended up with the opportunity to go to Job Corps. It changed her life. Absolutely. When she came out, she went in Kentucky, I think it was. So we were in Alabama. And so it was really great that they took her away from the local scene to get her away from her friends and get her away from that crowd. And she loved it. She still has friends. I know that she's in contact with. She came back. She could get a job. You know, she had got her high school diploma, which was really quite remarkable anyway in that demographic. But for her to go on to Job Corps, it absolutely changed her life. And so I know it changes people's lives. Definitely. And that's why I said we serve all of the Hawaiian Islands and throughout the Pacific. So again, 16 to 24 year old from a low income background that themselves have a desire to enter the program. Not their aunties or their school counselors. They're not successful that way. They need to be a legal resident of the United States. They can't have any court obligations. Oh no, see, wait. I thought that sometimes they could get sentenced to Job Corps. Years ago, but that didn't work. So we've evolved. It's a completely volunteer program. The young people want to have to come in. In the past, it could be a court ordered. When I first started at Job Corps 28 years ago, there was some of that going on. But they realized if they're ordered to be there, they're not going to be successful. So we've evolved again over the years. So again, people from low income backgrounds, maybe they've had some truancy, some minor bumps in the road with the judicial system. But we want them to have all that taken care of and so they can participate full time in the program. We're Monday through Friday, 8 to 4.30. So they can't have any court obligations. Oh right. They have to be able to attend class all day long every day. It's like a full time job kind of thing. And the majority of our students live on campus. So they're there full time Monday through Friday. So they can live there and you feed them and everything? All of their basic needs are taken care of. Okay, so does it cost anything? How much does it cost for these kids to do this? We're a no cost vocational training program. Oh my gosh. So is there a need again to finish their high school diploma, need some job training? We're probably the program for them. Right. I know so many kids that could benefit from this here. You know, and people ask how do they hear about Job Corps? Not only we have admissions counselors and staff on board that are out there spreading the Job Corps message, but most of them learn about it from family members, friends. Right. You know I was surprised that that sort of misconception of troubled kids go to Job Corps. Because I was talking to somebody about the fact that I was really excited that you were going to be coming on because it's really important to get this word out to people that this opportunity is available, right? And they said to me, oh, isn't that for troubled kids? And I'm like, not anymore. From what I understand, so I was really looking forward to being able to ask you about that. And because it's still sort of a misconception for people that we need to change. There is that image and we're out there trying to change it. So our graduates are out in the community. Not only they're concentrating full time on their education and career training, but we encourage them to be part of the community, being good neighbors. So we're very involved with service learning, anything going on in the community. We want our students to be working alongside of community members. Giving back to the community as you well know is a trait of a responsible civic minded citizen. That's right. So we're practicing that at Job Corps and with the thought that they'll go back into their communities and continue to pay it forward. Right. And that's the hope, of course, always that they're going to pay it forward. Because you know they've got to have friends that they know that are struggling or having a rough time. And the economy, unfortunately, here in Hawaii is really hard to have anything extra after you pay your mortgage or your rent. And so having anything for your kids to go to college is, I mean, you've got to be making $150,000 a year or more if you're going to be able to afford to send your kids to school. Right. And again, we call it a no cost, you know, scholarship because if they meet the age and income requirements that desire to improve their lives, it's at no cost to them. Wow. And to operate a program like this, we say it's about a $36,000 a year scholarship. Wow. Because that's what it costs. All their basic needs are taking care of housing, medical dental clothing. What? Medical dental, too? Uniforms. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. They even get a little bit of spending money. The theory is it's operated by Department of Labor and the investment is so they can concentrate full time on their career training. Right. Because it's kind of a concentrated training, right? Yes. Wow. So could they come from another state like the little girl that I knew that went from Alabama up to Kentucky? Sure. Is that the kind of thing that can happen? Currently, Department of Labor has it geographically based. So we serve all of the Hawaiian islands and throughout the Pacific. Okay. So we serve students from American Samoa, Micronesia, Guam, Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. So if you're living here in Hawaii, one of our two campuses you would come to. If you're living on the mainland, you would attend the closest to where you're residing or the closest and what career pathway you're interested in. Oh, right. So that might have made a difference, right? But of course here in Hawaii, we get phone calls on a daily basis. Students from the mainland wanting to come here. But we're serving the students of the Hawaiian islands. Right. So you have two? We have two campuses. Two campuses. Our main one is in Waimanalo on the windward side. That's our largest campus. We serve a little over 200, about 211. 211 kids. We have room for that in the dormitories. Wow. And then up country Maui, beautiful campus in Makauau. Oh wow, yeah. That we have room for 130 in the dormitories. Oh my gosh, that's huge. And those are for the students who reside on campus. Right. But then if you wanted to commute, you could do that also. Oh my goodness, so you don't actually have to live. If you've got a big family and you'd rather live at home, you can just come in for the daily trainings. Or if you're a young adult, you know, 16 to 24, a lot of them maybe have small children. So at the Waimanalo site, they can commute. We even have a child care center on campus. So they can bring their kids with them? Correct. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. So their children would be receiving quality child care while they concentrate full-time on their career program. Wow, so this is like, if you've got someone say who got married young and it turns out to be an abusive situation like what we talk about a lot here on this show, they could maybe retrain themselves. They could get some more training so they can get out there in the workforce. Thanks. Because they're sort of lost afterwards, right? Correct. Oh my gosh, and if they already have kids, then that's a way to be able to do this. And it doesn't cost, there's no cost for the child care or anything. No, if they qualify for our program, they would qualify for the child care center right there on our campus. So we want to remove a lot of the barriers that are preventing them from continuing their education or receiving job training. Wow, that is just remarkable to me that this, since the 60s has been going on and that it's morphed into so much more than it used to be. And it's, I think it's kind of sad that people don't realize that it's not just troubled kids anymore. No. And so I want to help you get that word out because I was really surprised when that person said to me, oh, that's just for troubled kids, right? And I thought, I don't think so, not anymore. Again, we're out there continuing to educate. But we've been serving the youth of Hawaiian Pacific actually since 1965, a year after the Opportunity Act passed. Wow. And over the years, like I said, I've been with the Job Corps for 28 years. But even before that, we've had campuses on the Big Island, Kauai, but again, right now we're on Oahu and Maui. But we're serving, we go out and recruit from all the different islands. We take care of their travel costs. There's no cost to the young people that are interested. That is awesome. Well, we're going to talk a little bit more about that in just a minute. Right now we need to take a break. I'm Cynthia Sinclair. This is Finding Respect in the Chaos on thinktechkawaii.com. Don't go anywhere because we got more to talk about. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on thinktechkawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaiiana all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Aloha. I am Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Cold Green for thinktechkawaii. I appear every other Monday at 3 p.m. and I have really, really exciting guests on the exciting topic of energy efficiency. Hope to see you there. Welcome back to Finding Respect in the Chaos. I'm Cynthia Sinclair and this is Julie Dugan and we are here talking about Job Corps and the way it has changed over the years and the opportunities that they have for kids. Well not just kids, but ages 16 to 24. So we're going to talk a little bit more about the exact kinds of programs that they have, what they have to offer and all of that. So Julie, I'm so glad you're here with us so that we can kind of change the narrative. That's sort of a negative narrative. Let's get that changed. Exactly. So tell us a little bit about what stuff you guys do. Sure. Well first of all, our motto is careers begin here. Nice. And so again, we're a no cost career and technical training program for youth 16 to 24. Our main campus is in Waimanalo. Nice. Beautiful campus on the windward side. We built that campus about 22 years ago. Wow. So we built it from the ground up. Our students are responsible for doing the maintenance. That's how they get their hands on training. Oh, so there's learning stuff too. Exactly. So when people tour the center, they say, it's so gorgeous. I don't see any graffiti. Well, our students are the ones who maintain it. So they have a vested interest in keeping it in prime shape. Sure. Sure. So at our Waimanalo site, we have nine different career tracks. Nine. Nine. Yes. So we have two medical. First one, we have a certified nurse assistant program. Wow. So we also have a medical office support. So CNA, front billing for the. My gosh, there's good money in those two careers. You can make a good living for yourself with that kind of a career. All of our trades, there's need in the industry. In fact, we have an advisory council that advises us on what the local workforce needs. For example, so I mentioned our CNA, our medical office support. One trade that we just added two years ago was our security and protective services. And we added that because the state went to a certification program. So for anyone who works in the security field in the state of Hawaii, they need a guard card certification. There wasn't enough training programs. Job Corps nationally already had a security training program. So we implemented that. Right. So they come out of there with the certification needed to go to work. Brilliant. We have employer partners that are calling me on a daily basis. See, we need more of these. Exactly. Wow. Exactly. We also have a, everyone needs office administration. We have an office administration trade. We have some construction related trades. We have a painting, industrial painting. We have a building maintenance. So in the building maintenance trade, they learn a little bit of carpentry, a little plumbing, a little bit of electrical to be able to go in and maintain. Oh my gosh. This is like a rounded out program where they can kind of, if they want to specialize later, they can do that, but they still have that. A little bit of solar also they're exposed to. Oh my gosh. And that's exactly what's needed here in Hawaii because the paint always gets, you know, you need to repaint your house like every two years or something, I think here. Right. Because the salt air is so hard on paint. Yes. And all of that, all of the stuff that you just talked about are things that is really in need here. Yeah. So landscaping also, that's huge. Beautiful. We have a great automotive training program. Wow. Yeah. And the ninth one, we have an outstanding culinary arts program. Our chef, Robert Tom, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America Award winning. Wow. All of our instructors have worked in the field before, so they're very well connected. And so when it comes time for our graduates to go to work, they ease them right into some outstanding situations. They've already got the networking and the connections that they needed to begin with. Correct. Wow. That's brilliant. Yeah, that's so smart. All of those things, too, are so big. So how do you pick whose cars you work on? Can we volunteer our cars? To get practice done? Yes. Just so happens I kind of need some help. Actually, right now at our Waimanalo site, they do get certified in breaks. So if someone in the community wants us to work on your car, you would just provide the materials. Pick me, pick me. Materials. And we could do that for you. Oh my gosh. Pick me, pick me. That's amazing. That's where they get their hands on experience. Oh, because labor is what's so expensive with this stuff, too. Exactly. Again, right now there are certified breaks. So once a person completes the trade, all of our trades, they leave there with some type of industry recognized certification. Years ago, they used to get a nice certificate saying that they were trained at Job Corps. That didn't mean anything to the employers. So now they all leave with some type of industry recognized certification. Oh, brilliant. So for the culinary, anyone in the restaurant business has to be served, saved, certified. So they leave with that. Our office administration leave with Microsoft office certifications. All of our hard trades have the OSHA, all those type. And of course, our CNAs leave as a certified nurse aid. We pay for all the certifications. So there's no cost for these students. So the CNA, man, because that's a hard thing. I know that at Winward, they have a CNA program that takes, it takes like two years. So that program takes two years. So they have to be invested for two years to come to that program. Is that right? No. Our CNA program, depending on the individual. So people ask, how long does it take? Right. It depends on the individual. If I come into the program and I've already graduated from high school, I could get through the culinary program in eight to 10 months. Wow. So if you needed to work on your high school and go into a trade, it might take a little bit longer. Oh, I see. So the average length of stay or completion right now is one year. You can be in the program up to two years. Oh, okay. So there's not only opportunities to get certified, but you also could remain in the program and start your college career. Oh, my gosh, really? So you could still go to, you could be going to college while you're in the program. Now we have, I believe, just 10 students that have completed the basics, and they have started their college career at Winward Community College. Wow. In fact, just last month, we had two students that graduated from Winward with their associates in liberal arts. And one young lady has been accepted into the School of Social Work at UH Manoa. Oh, my gosh. That's remarkable. And she got her start in our program. The first in her family, not only to graduate from high school, but in college too. Wow. So the opportunities are there if the young people want to take advantage of them. Yeah. So career training, college, there's also advanced training programs on the mainland, so they could actually go to mainland centers after they finished Job Corps. So see, just per se, they say they needed to get their high school diploma, and then they went through the training. Right. But they want more training. So they could go to an advanced level. We get, we do basic certification of the Hawaii Center. Wow. Yes. They just have to be in great sanding, you know, given 110% while they're in our program. Sure. So that they can continue a little bit longer and a little bit further. Correct. And does that include the transportation to get to this other place? All of their basic needs are taken care of. Everything. Transportation, correct. Wow. So while they're living on the program, housing, basic medical and dental, we have a delicious dining, full service dining. Oh, I was going to see. Is that where the career, I mean, the culinary stuff, do they make the food for the people that are there? Correct. Oh. Beautiful dormitories. Oh my goodness. Yes. In addition, when they leave the program, we offer job placement and job retention services. Oh my gosh. That's like remarkable. Yes. It changes people's lives. Kind of like the little girl that I knew in Alabama, it changed her life. Correct. She came back, she got a job. She was just had all these like nowhere little tiny jobs working at the, you know, the little food mark down the corner. Underemployed. Underemployed, making almost nothing. She had her high school diploma. She heard about Job Corps. She asked me what I thought of it and I said, I think it's a great program. I read the little brochure with her and I helped her get the phone call going. So that's why I was so excited when you were coming on today because I'm like, you know, somebody who went through that and really it just changed her life. And so I think that's really important and it's really exciting and I think that the people here in Hawaii maybe don't know about it and so that's why I was so excited for you to come on. There's so many opportunities and we're always looking for different venues to spread the Job Corps message. So if there's anyone out there that is interested, we can come out and do a presentation to your school, to your organization. Okay. So we have staff available. They could contact me directly at 259-6051 or we do have weekly tours at our Waimanalo campus. It's every Thursday at nine o'clock. I want to come see it. We do ask for reservations and they could call 259-3220. At our Maui site, we do tours every Thursday at 10 and they could contact us at 579-6506. I don't think we have that number for the screen so can you repeat that number one more time for him? For our Maui site, you can call 579-6506 tours every Thursday at 10 a.m. Oh my gosh, I think that's important for the kids to be able to come out and take a tour and make sure that it's something that they, instead of just, you know, being curious and hearing it in the, you know, pipeline of things, hearing that, and then to actually get to see it, you know, and maybe even parents that don't want their kids to go to it because they heard that it's for troubled kids can come out and really take a tour and see that it's no longer just that, that it's more than that. And that's very eye-opening when they come take a tour and we encourage the parents, their support systems, you know, their school counselors, anyone come out and seeing as believing rather than just hearing it from me, hearing from the young people who are currently participating, hearing from the instructors about the employment opportunities, the connections that we have in the community. They also participate in a six-week internship program out at employer sites. And a lot of times the employers are so impressed with them they want to hire them on the spot. Wow. Oh my goodness. All of this is so amazing. Do you have, we're almost out of time. It goes by so fast. I can't believe how fast it goes by when there's so much more to talk about. But I want to have you back again so we can talk even more about all this amazing opportunities that you guys have. Do you have one last thing maybe that you'd like to make sure everybody knows about before we're done? Sure. Again, we would love to come out and spread the Job Corps message. They can contact me directly at 259-6051 or if any of our viewers are watching the mainland. You can contact find out more information about the Job Corps at 1-800-733-JOBS and that's 5-627. Right. Awesome. I'm just so happy that you were here, Julie. Thank you so much for coming. And I want to thank everybody for joining us today. He goes by so fast. This was finding respect in the chaos and this Job Corps is some serious respect out there on the chaos. So remember it and remember those numbers if you need help. I really want to thank you for joining us today. This was thinktecawaii.com. Please come back and join us again. The Cynthia Lee Sinclair finding respect in the chaos on thinktecawaii.com