LAONA, Wis. (AP) — A job-training center that has served hundreds of disadvantaged youths is closing in northern Wisconsin.
The closing of the Blackwell Job Corps Center in Laona comes as part of a Trump administration plan to cut 1,100 jobs in the Forest Service Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers program. Nationwide, nine centers will close.
The program in Wisconsin has been training young people since 1964. It can provide training to as many as 160 students between the ages of 16 and 24 at a time in a range of things, including labor and medical work.
A former instructor, Eric Martinson, tells Wisconsin Public Radio News the closure will be felt by big manufacturers and other Wisconsin companies that had hired student trained there.