The Urban League of Chattanooga will launch a new training and mentoring program early next year to help 100 former juvenile offenders get job skills and employment.
The Chattanooga Urban League chapter is one of seven affiliates in the country getting an extra $528,624 over the next two years from a federal grant to the National Urban League to provide specialized training for those age 18 to 24 who have previously had trouble with the law.
Warren LoganParticipants will have an opportunity to earn commercial drivers licenses and certifications in welding, machinery operations, green construction, occupational training and certified nursing assistant. The program will also provide mentoring and the chance for those in the program to expunge their criminal records.
Warren Logan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, said the grant “will in many ways provide new beginnings on more meaningful pathways for young adults who faced challenges in the past.
“The needed training and industry credentials will guarantee a skill set for a successful career in a meaningful occupation,” he said.
Ronnie Pruitt, the program director for the new Workplace Development Program for Young Adults, joined the Chattanooga Urban League three months ago to help establish the workforce training initiative. She said Tuesday she is looking to hire a business developer, advocate counselor, a mentor coordinator and an intake coordinator.
“We’re going to be working with the Juvenile Court and local organizations such as the 100 Black Men of Chattanooga and the 100 Black Women of Chattanooga to help us in recruiting participants,” she said. “These young people we will be working with need a better future and direction. If we can work with these individuals to give them the help and skills they need to be employed, that will not only help these participants, it will help our entire city.”
The local Urban League, established in 1982, is trying to get matching funds from local donors and will work with a variety of local business groups, including the Chattanooga chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. The funding from the National Urban League is provided from the U.S. Department of Labor as part of a federal program to give more young people job skills to find work and reduce crime.
Participants in the program have juvenile records of committing crime, but they must have no adult criminal record, Pruitt said.
Funding was also awarded to Urban League Affiliates located in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Peoria, Ill., and Springfield, Ill.
More information about the new initiative is available at www.ulchatt.net or by calling Ronnie Pruitt at 423.756.1762.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.