KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo Urban Alliance is expanding their Momentum Academy to offer new job skills for a group of Kalamazoo residents who might stand little chance of landing a job otherwise.
They take former drug addicts, the chronically under employed, the graduates of Kalamazoo County’s specialty courts and others who don’t usually appear in the state’s unemployment stats, and give them the skills that local employers say they need to fill job openings at local plants.
Govenor Rick Snyder dropped by yesterday at the Invitation of Senator Margaret O’Brien to take a look. Over 70% of the graduates of the free 8-week program find work.
They work directly with employers to find what job skills those employees need.
The group has just received about 1.4-million in grants and in-kind services, including the use of an old Paper Warehouse in Parchment. They need about a million more to make it all come true.
