ICYMI: Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet is Leading the Fight to Protect Flint Job Corps

McDonald Rivet is fighting back against Flint Job Corps closure that will hurt Flint’s youth and the Flint economy

After the Trump Administration announced the closure of the national Job Corps program, Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet has been leading the fight to protect the Flint Job Corps.

The Flint Job Corps program serves nearly 150 students and provides job training and education for youth in the Flint community, helping them develop the skills necessary to find a job and build a successful career.

Rep. McDonald Rivet is fighting back against the administration’s cruel closure of the program, working to support displaced students, and pushing to restore funding for the Flint Genesee campus to protect Flint’s workforce. 

Read more about Rep. McDonald Rivet’s fight for the Flint community:

MLive: Shutdown of Flint Job Corps ‘cruel, damaging, and unacceptable,’ congresswoman says

• The U.S. Department of Labor’s decision to halt contracts at 99 Job Corps centers nationwide, including one in Flint, is getting pushback from U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet and local officials in Genesee County.
• In Flint, the shutdown displaces 147 students, according to the city, many of whom live on site and rely on the program for basic needs.
• “The Flint Job Corps program is a gem of our community, uplifting kids who need it most with opportunity, training, and jobs,” McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, said in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal.
• “Shutting it down and kicking kids to the curb without any advance notice is cruel, damaging, and unacceptable,” the congresswoman’s statement reads. “My team and I are working alongside other community leaders to support the displaced students to get them the resources they need, and I am exploring options in Washington to restore funding as soon as possible.”

Mid-Michigan NOW: Congresswoman McDonald-Rivet hosts event at Job Corps Center

• Congresswoman Kristen McDonald-Rivet hosted an event on Saturday at the Job Corps of Flint-Genesee Job Corps Center.
• At the event, McDonald-Rivet announced that a this week a ruling was made blocking the Trump Administration from taking steps to close Job Corps. However, she said further action is needed to restore funding to the program.
• One of the speakers at the event was Stacey Littlejohn Jr. a former college football player who wanted to go pro and joined Job Corps program after losing the chance to play in the NCAA.
• Littlejohn says the program “was the open arms” that gave him another chance at life.
• He now is the owner of a security company, a public speaker and the founder of the FMH or Fighting Mental Health corporation.
• “You’re not just taking a trade school, you’re not just taking chances away but you’re taking people’s family. The biggest thing that you’ve got to see is that it creates a family for people, and a lot of people don’t have that, and that’s what everyone needs,” said Littlejohn.

ABC12: Community leaders protest pause of Job Corps program

• Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet and community leaders gathered Saturday to protest the pause of the Job Corps program.
• The press conference took place outside the Flint Genesee Job Corps Center with students and alumni joining McDonald Rivet in expressing their concerns.
• McDonald Rivet urged the U.S. Labor Secretary to reverse the decision and restore funding.

Central Michigan Life: U.S. Rep., supporters rally for Job Corps

• McDonald-Rivet urged the Department of Labor to reconsider its decision and continue Job Corps operations of its own accord. 
• “(Job Corps) is important. It needs to continue, and we need to fight,” she said. 
• Since 1964, Flint Genesee Job Corps has provided young adults and teens from low-income households free job training and education. Flint Genesee Job Corps is one of many nationally recognized Job Corps.
• Stacey Littlejohn graduated from the program in 2023 and is now the founder of Fighting Mental Health, a program he hopes will help aid those struggling with mental health issues. He said his time at the Job Corps has helped him create the program.
• “My experiences here helped,” Littlejohn said. “Being around that family structure is what made me feel motivated.” 

Washington Post: The program Republicans loved — until they didn’t

• Those are the sites the department targeted with its closures last month, ordering them to stop all operations by June 30. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Michigan), who represents a center in Flint, said she was shaken by how abruptly the order came, with staffers telling her that they were ordered to call the families of residential participants to pick them up or drop them off at homeless shelters.
• “That, in our community, is not just callous, but another example of people turning their backs on the community,” McDonald Rivet told us, evoking the infamous water crisis that afflicted the city. “It’s like they’ve lost their souls and forgotten the people that really need us.”
• But no matter how the court rules, McDonald Rivet said, the damage was done to participants’ faith in the program’s longevity.
• “It’s not just this one thing. It’s the over and over and over again, cuts to local food banks and potential massive cuts to Medicaid and the cuts to student financial aid and things that are really important to communities like Flint that are completely under siege,” McDonald Rivet said.
• Stacey Littlejohn Jr., an alumnus of the Flint Job Corps center, spoke at an event last weekend with McDonald Rivet about how Job Corps gave him a path forward after he lost a chance to play college football. It taught him skills he needed to find his feet again, including how to network and speak and dress professionally.
• “No college, trade school was willing to give me a second chance. Job Corps opened their arms and gave me a second chance,” said Littlejohn, who now works in personal security. “This is their safety, this is their structure, this is the way they learn, this is their resource. … If you take that away, you take their whole lives away.”

WNEM: Flint students impacted by halted Job Corps contract

• Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community. At the Flint Genesee Center, it serves 147 students.
• Most of them live on site and rely on the program for housing, meals, and access to high school equivalency classes, trade certifications, and job placement assistance.
• “There are 15 kids who don’t have anywhere else to go immediately,” said McDonald Rivet. “The direction from the federal government, send them to a homeless shelter.”
• “I’m working with the members of Congress from those areas,” said McDonald Rivet. “We are scheduling meetings with the Department of Labor. In the short term, we are pushing to make sure that there’s a plan for each and every kid in the program. Minimally, let’s make sure they’re someplace where they are safe. And secondly, we need to understand why the timeline was pushed up, and see what we can do, in the long term, to keep the program open.”
• …McDonald Rivet points out that the 147 kids and young adults who were shown the door on Friday are trying to make their own path on the road to success that just got bumpier.
• “They are learning new job skills. They are getting career training. They are doing everything we ask them to do. And to have the rug pulled out from under them so quickly, and in such a cruel way, it’s just not who we are. Those are not our values, and we need to stand up and say no,” said McDonald Rivet.
• McDonald Rivet said she’s hoping to have some preliminary answers on what can be done to get Job Corps reopened in about a week. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor said it will arrange transportation and cover costs to transfer students back to their home of record by June 30.

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