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...... . . ,/ ,d . . . ,. - t ./ 3 Economi.c Opportuni.ty Report May 13, 1968 ,."' JOB CORPS SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR INNER-CITY CENTERS Job Corps i.s seeki.ng proposals from local communiti.es for the new Inner-City Job Corps Centers to be i.nitiated i.n fiscal 1969. Since initiation of the new centers depends on whether or not Job Corps gets the funds it has requested from Congress, Job Corps headquarters has not yet contacted most ci.ti.es, but a joint task force composed of representatives of HEW' s Office of Vocational Education, the Labor Department and the Job Corps, has been created to evaluate proposals as they are received. The 1967 amendments to the EO Act directed OEO to "enter into one or more agreements with state educational agencies to pay the cost of es ta.blishing and operating model com..: munity vocational education schools and skill centers 11 • The Bureau of the Budget, in the President's FY 1969 budget request, agreed on a program; plan of four or five such centers. Preference will probably be. given to those cities where Job Corps had urban centers in operation or planned, such as Baltimore (planned as a residential center for . unwed mothers) and Detroit (planned as a Public Health Center) where Job Corps already owns property. Baltimore has already submitted a proposal which will p_robably be accepted and Job Corps hopes to initiate that center as soon as possible after July 1. Eight or ten other cities have submitted proposals which are in various stages of detail and about four of them are acceptable. Job Corps has established no "guidelines" for the program, but will rest on the criteria established in the legislation. This w'ill allow the ·individual co:minun·ities to have the widest latitude for developing innovative proposals within the legislative limits, but the center must not duplicate any existing MDTA or other manpower training programs. The principle of residency versus non-residency will probably be t·ested,·, and the schoo 1 system should have the widest possible involvement in the project. The 1967 EO Act amendments provided that: "In order to determine whether upgraded vocational education schools could eliminate or substantially reduce the school dropout problem, and to demonstrate how communities could make maximum utilization of existing educational and training facilities, the Director, in cooperation with the Commissioner of Education, shall enter into one or more agreements with State educational agencies to pay the cost of establishing and operating model community vocational education schools and skill centers. Such facilities shall be centrally located in an urban area having a high drop<::?ut rate, a large number of unemployed youths, and a need in the area for a compiriation vocational school and skill center. No such agreement shall be entered into unless it contains provisions designed to assure that: 1) a job survey be made of the area; 2) the training prog ram of the school and skill center reflect the job market needs as projected by the survey; 3) an advi sory c ommittee composed of representatives of business, labor, e duc ation, and community leaders be formed to follow the center's activities and t o make periodic recommendations . regarding its operation . 4 ) arrangements have been worked out with schools in the area and the administrator of the skill center for maximum utilization of the center both during and after school hours; and, 5) such accounting and evaluation procedures as the: Director and the Commissioner of Education deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this project will be provided . �