U.S. Department of Labor Awards First Non-Profit Set Aside Contract to Eckerd Youth Alternatives to Operate Washington, D.C. Job Corps Center

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of a contract to Eckerd Youth Alternatives Inc. for operations of the Potomac Job Corps Center in southwest Washington, D.C. The award is a first-of-its-kind total set-aside as part of a pilot program to enhance Job Corps participation by non-profit entities. 

“Eckerd Youth Alternatives will train students for employment openings in the Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland areas and is the first non-profit set aside to operate a Job Corps Center,” said Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training John Pallasch. “Non-profit entities will provide expanded linkages to the workforce system to further the Department’s ‘One Workforce’ vision. Non-profit entities already have strong relationships with their local workforce systems and are employing innovative strategies to connect participants with job opportunities.”

Eckerd Youth Alternatives provides early intervention and prevention, wilderness education, residential and day treatment, and reentry and aftercare programs for at-risk youths. The non-profit organization has worked to help more than 80,000 at-risk youth through its operations at locations across the nation. Eckerd Youth Alternatives offers many of its programs under contract with state juvenile justice agencies.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act allows the Secretary of Labor to carry out experimental, research, or demonstration projects relating to the Job Corps program that serves at-risk youth at centers throughout the nation.

With 123 residential and non-residential centers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Job Corps is a national residential training and employment program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to address the multiple barriers to employment faced by at-risk youth. The program provides career development services to students, including academic, career technical, career success and independent living skills, career readiness training and support services.

ETA administers federal government job training and worker dislocation programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs, and unemployment insurance benefits. These services are primarily provided through state and local workforce development systems.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.