Blue Ridge Job Corps celebrates earned respect

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Friday’s forecast called for rain, but sun shone abundantly through a deep blue sky on a late-morning gathering in front of the main Blue Ridge Job Corps building.
BRJC’s Laura Lincoln had done what she could on that part of the arrangements. “I prayed so hard last night for it to be sunny,” she said.
Other arrangements involved setting up a tent and chairs just beyond the building’s brick steps, printing programs, inviting dignitaries and the public, and food preparation.
If it sounds like a special occasion it indeed was. It marked the Marion school’s 40th year and the larger Job Corps program’s 45th anniversary. To top it off, BRJC had been ranked the top campus among 120 nationwide for the eighth month in a row.
Congratulations for longevity and performance in this anniversary year were among the comments from U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, brought by Gwyn Dutton, Webb’s Norton-based regional representative.
Representing Congressman Rick Boucher, Senior Casework Specialist Regina Kinder offered similar regards of commendation on the anniversary and congratulations for the ranking the congressman called “an outstanding accomplishment.”
Marion Mayor David Helms and Virginia Delegate Bill Carrico spoke of the Job Corps’ place in the community and of their support for the program.
Perhaps most moving were the remarks by Delores Boehm, a longtime supporter of the BRJC with her now-deceased husband who was memorialized when the center opened the Ralph G. Boehm gymnasium several years ago. Boehm has served on the BRJC Community Relations Committee for years as a member and president.
Boehm congratulated Res-Care, the contractor operating the center and 15 others from the U.S. Department of Labor, and Center Director Gary Tickles.
“Gary Tickles empowers his staff. That’s a good supervisor,” Boehm said.
As a resident of the neighborhood adjacent to the BRJC campus, Boehm recalled a time when the center had not yet earned the community respect it enjoys today. Now, she said of the students, “We don’t know they’re there. We used to know.”
Boehm credited the BRJC staff that “empowers their students,” and the “wonderful, wonderful students. Because of them, we’re number 1. The students give of themselves in the community.”
The students, now participating in a curriculum that since July 2007 is entirely centered around preparing students for medical careers, use their skills in a variety of settings including physicians’ offices, the hospital and cancer center in Abingdon, nursing homes in Smyth County, Lifetime Wellness Center, Southwest Virginia Mental Health Institute, and the preschool at Ebenezer Lutheran Church.
Some of those students in their medical uniforms started the celebration in September, participating in the Chilhowie Community Apple Festival where they offered cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure tests and education about the results, and invited the public to the campus open house.
When the center reached the top rank in March, Tickles seems to have predicted the center’s future. “I really feel we should be at least a top-five center for many, many months to come,” he said. “But no one knows. With the economy the way it is, jobs are going to be very hard to come by, but that’s something all the centers face.”
Job placement and retention are among the standards on which the Department of Labor bases its Job Corps rankings. All of the Job Corps centers are evaluated on 12 measures, including the rates of job placement of Job Corps alumni and average wages immediately post-enrollment and six and 12 months later – even more significant in context of current unemployment rates locally, across Virginia and the country—and how well those jobs match the graduates’ training, Tickles said.
In September 2006, Blue Ridge came close to the top nationally, rising to the number-two slot but taking the top ranking regionally. When it was at number three, the Marion Town Council adopted a resolution of commendation to the center. The resolution said in part “the center has an enviable reputation for developing the individual potential of each of the students by emphasizing life principles and good work ethics,” and the center and its “students, teachers and counselors are an integral part of the Town of Marion.”
In March of this year, the center took the top position and has kept it. Now, staff and students are eyeing month 14 to set a new national record.
As the center has demonstrated for years and celebrated last week, there’s every reason to believe its staff and students can make it happen.