Job Corps is a program administered by the United States Department of Labor that offers free education and vocational training to young people ages 16 to 24.
57-721: Nelson Stevens (1938–July 22, 2022) was an artist known for his involvement with Chicago-based Black art collective AfriCOBRA . Stevens' works are held by institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago , the Brooklyn Museum , Memphis Brooks Museum of Art , Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts , the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture , and the Tate . Stevens
114-592: A 2003 Mathematica study (withheld from the public by the government until 2006) as indicating negative impacts on childless female participants' incomes from 1998 through 2001. Complaining that Job Corps fails to "substantially raise the wages of participants" -- at a cost of "$ 25,000 per participant" for an eight-month "average participation period" -- the Heritage Foundation described the agency as "a waste of taxpayers' dollars," and "an ideal candidate" to be on "the budget chopping block." A report from
171-983: A course on African-American art history. He was a professor of art in the African-American Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1972 until 2003. During his tenure he also functioned as faculty advisor to DRUM, a student literary and cultural magazine. While living in Cleveland, Stevens frequently attended The Jazz Temple . Stevens lived in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1972 until 2003. After his retirement in 2003, Stevens moved to Owings Mills, Maryland . He and Marciana G. Sealey, had one daughter, Nadya Stevens in 1983. AfriCOBRA AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists)
228-634: A former Albuquerque center teacher who alleged that welding students who failed to attend training were given welding-competence certificates, anyway, to take into the workforce. A former career counselor in Texas reported that management pressure to get "job placements" resulted in "85 percent" of reported placements being "fake." CBS noted that 3 years earlier, the Labor Department's inspector general determined that Job Corps had "overstated 42 percent" of job placements at five sites -- and that many of
285-593: A function that Black people could directly relate to, emphasizing education and awareness of the conditions of Black people. In an interview celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Teresa A. Carbone (the Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum) stated, "It's difficult to draw a one-to-one correspondence between a work and an immediate social effect, but graphics from
342-425: A high school diploma"; not any more likely to complete, or even attend, college; and earnings of Job Corps participants were essentially the same as a "control group" of similar non-participants. In their 2009 critique, additionally citing a 2001 Mathematica study, the Heritage Foundation noted that income gains for participants (vs. comparable non-participants) was "never more than $ 25.20" per week, while they cited
399-640: A mural in Boston , entitled Work to Unify African People , which was intended to parallel Dana Chandler 's mural, Knowledge is power so Stay in School . In 1980, Stevens created a mural, entitled Centennial Vision , for the Tuskegee University to celebrate their 100th anniversary. It was unveiled in July of that year. In 1989 Stevens and five Job Corps students collaborated on a mural to commemorate
456-632: A painting to replace their work of a blonde and blue-eyed Mary and Jesus . The works were sold as a series of calendars through Spirit Wood Productions, a group founded by Stevens and his wife, Martha Grier. The calendars were sold for four years, with about 15,000 calendars sold each year. Some works from the project were exhibited at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City in 1994. Stevens viewed
513-459: A program to create public murals in Springfield, Massachusetts , with the aid of his students from University of Massachusetts Amherst . Over the following four years Stevens and his team created 36 murals. Although many of the murals were lost in the intervening years, two of the murals – Wall of Black Music and Tribute to Black Women – were recreated in 2022. In 1973, Stevens also created
570-594: A project at Northern Illinois University called Color Rappers, which aimed to raise scholarship money for Black students through selling art. In 1992 Stevens began the Art in the Service of the Lord project, which commissioned African-American artists to create biblical art featuring Black individuals. The project was inspired by an experience in which a Black-owned funeral home approached Stevens and asked to commission him for
627-1171: A role in suspicions and reporting of perceived problems. In 2017, Labor Department deputy inspector general Larry D. Turner, testifying before a Congressional committee, reported that Job Corps officials and contractors often failed to report "potentially serious criminal misconduct" to local, state or federal law enforcement -- noting that, of the 12 centers inspectors visited (out of 129), all but one failed to report to law enforcement various "potentially serious criminal misconduct incidents," leaving 40 percent of 348 such incidents unreported at those 11 sites. He also noted that Job Corps sites typically had "Physical security weaknesses" (such as "inadequate [or] unmonitored closed circuit television systems," inadequate security staff, and "compromised perimeters," and failed to properly screen center employees." Job Corps defenders argued that critics were overreacting to these shortcomings, which were not atypical of conditions in innercity and rural settings that Job Corps participants were fleeing. In 2017, with per-student costs ranging from $ 15,000 to $ 45,000, President Trump 's Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta , stated that
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#1732802141915684-509: A series of evaluations and reports on the Job Corps for the agency's parent, the U.S. Department of Labor, and for independent academic journals. Their long-term study involved repeated nationwide surveys of over 6,800 Job Corps participants, and a "control group" of over 4,400 comparable non-participants, over a four-year period -- and, in some reports, used the government-held, employer-reported tax records of individual workers for analysis of
741-542: A statement of truth , of action, of education, of conditions and a state of being to our people. We wanted to speak to them and for them, by having our common thoughts, feelings, trials and tribulations express our total existence as a people. Later wrote in Afri-COBRA III Exhibition catalog, 1973 "The History, Philosophy, and Aesthetics of Afri-COBRA" which contained several lists of directives, philosophical concepts, aesthetic principles, all of which
798-471: Is Jones-Hogu's interpretation of the statues that the group followed. The visual statements are described as humanistic in order to stress "strength, straight forwardness, profoundness, and proudness," as well as providing a direct statement about issues of that time. The philosophical concepts described with bolded words stating images, "identification", "programmatic", "modes of expression", and "expressive awesomeness". Aesthetic principles also are described
855-594: Is an African-American artists' collective formed in Chicago in 1968. The group was founded by Jeff Donaldson , Wadsworth Jarrell , Jae Jarrell , Barbara Jones-Hogu , Nelson Stevens , and Gerald Williams . AfriCOBRA's founding members were first associated with the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) , established in 1967. This group, formed in Chicago to encourage education and performance amongst
912-939: The AfriCOBRA II show in the fall of 1971. The group continued to participate in exhibitions at historically African American colleges throughout the 1970s. During the 1970s, many artists associated with AfriCOBRA traveled back to Africa to study African art, considering African art to be essential to their work as AfriCOBRA artists. They traveled back to Africa during a time when many African countries were gaining independence from colonial rule. Additionally, many of these countries were gaining stature at American universities, many of which were beginning to create their African Studies programs. These traveling individuals became known as "returnee" artists, and many pursued degrees in African art. Many of them are still important scholars of African and African American art today. In 1977, AfriCOBRA
969-584: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the closure of Job Corps physical sites, and the organization attempted to shift to online education . Enrollment dropped by about 75 percent. Since its inception in 1964 under the Economic Opportunity Act , Job Corps has served more than 2 million young people. As of 2019, Job Corps serves over 60,000 youths annually at Job Corps centers throughout the country. People are eligible for Job Corps by meeting
1026-858: The Jamaica Plain Art Center in 1994, and at the Northampton Center for the Arts in 1995. Stevens also curated a 1991 exhibition of African American art entitled "Rhythming". A one-man show of Stevens' work was shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1973, and at the Afro-American Cultural Center of American International College in January and February 1978. In 2009 a collection of Stevens' work
1083-558: The Post reported, some centers have reportedly understated these offenses, in their official record, to keep student offenders enrolled. However, progressive philanthropy advocate and watchdog Rick Cohen, writing in Nonprofit Quarterly , expressed skepticism of complaints, suggesting that many of these problems were not abnormal for that demographic, whether in Job Corps or not -- and suggested that racial bias may have played
1140-468: The Vietnam War , suggested that the Job Corps could be useful in preparing young men to meet the mental and physical requirements for military enlistment. When President Johnson and his planning staff decided on the war on poverty , most of the proposed programs would take more than a year to even start. However the Job Corps idea was well along in the planning stage and could be deployed rapidly, so
1197-543: The Wall of Respect, began exploring whether or not a Black art movement could be started on the basis of a common aesthetic creed. After a series of meetings, Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barabara Jones-Hogu, and Gerald Williams would come together to form the group known as COBRA, the Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. It was not until a few years later that the group changed their name to AfriCOBRA. AfriCOBRA
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#17328021419151254-612: The Black aesthetic was not simply art, but a powerful image. The image was a representation of Black pride, Black self-determination, and a support of all Black people of the Diaspora . The group had a main purpose of celebrating African identity and calling awareness to the political struggles through the representation of Black Visual Culture. AfriCOBRA's work incorporated elements of free jazz, vibrant, "kool-aid" colors, and images representing spiritual identity. Their images were to perform
1311-477: The Chicago artist collective AfriCOBRA, [African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists] really did help reshape the mindset of black communities." AfriCOBRA works to make African-American art a community effort. Much of the visual aesthetic of these works are focused on social, political, and economical conditions related to Black Americans. They created a manifesto entitled "Ten in Search of a Nation" in 1969. One of
1368-635: The Government Accountability Office cited over 13,500 safety incidents at Job Corps centers from 2016 to 2017 -- most of them drug-related or assaults. In April 2017, the Trump administration 's Labor Department inspector general concluded that the agency could not show "beneficial training outcomes." While the Job Corps has remained popular with politicians in both parties (and with private contractors who operate and service Job Corps centers ), there have been many critics of
1425-804: The Labor Department Job Corps Task Force was appointed to the Task force for the War on Poverty, and the Job Corps was slated to be the initial operational program. Job Corps was therefore initiated as the central program of the Johnson Administration's War on Poverty, part of his domestic agenda known as the Great Society . Sargent Shriver , the first Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity , modeled
1482-445: The attacker was allowed to continue in the program). They quoted a fired security guard, a former police sergeant, as witnessing drug use ("marijuana, cocaine, heroin") but being pressured by management to keep quiet about it, despite the official Job Corps "zero tolerance" for drug use. (CBS obtained video of a student cutting a white powder on his desk). Student expulsions reportedly hurt contractor and agency standing. CBS interviewed
1539-500: The businesses provided Stevens with free meals. Stevens joined AfriCOBRA in 1969 after meeting co-founder Jeff Donaldson at the College Art Association Conference in Boston . He, along with other members, created silkscreen prints of his work as a way to make art more accessible to the general public; they were initially sold for only $ 10–15 at local events. In 1971, Stevens designed posters for
1596-546: The city's African American population, was responsible for the famous Wall of Respect . The wall consisted of a series of portraits dedicated to individuals considered heroes and heroines of African American history. The Wall of Respect was ultimately destroyed in a fire in 1971. However, it served as an inspiration for further artistic representation of the African American experience. Jeff Donaldson and Wadsworth Jarrell, two OBAC artists who had contributed to
1653-543: The convention were beaten and brutalized by police. Every member of Cobra contributed an image to the theme. In 1969, the group changed their name to AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists). Choosing to focus more on the Diaspora of people of African descent, the group embraced rising Afrocentric ideology. The name change was followed by the addition of new artists, including Napoleon Henderson, Nelson Stevens, Sherman Beck , and Carolyn Lawrence . In 1970,
1710-447: The creation of art as "for the sake of people" rather than "for art's sake". His art featured "bold", " cool-ade " colors and "unexpected lines", and often included lettering or text. His works frequently focused on pan-Africanism and positive portrayals of both historical and contemporary Black subjects. Stevens largely focused on two-dimensional paintings, although his body of work does include some collages . In 1973, Stevens began
1767-571: The first 60 days of enrollment. Career Development : This period is where the student receives all vocational training, academic instruction, employability and social skills development, and driver's education. Career Transition : The period is preceded by a focus on transition readiness, and is the phase of services that immediately follows a student after they leave Job Corps. Career Transition Specialists assist with job placement or searches, and provide support and referrals for housing, transportation, and other essential components of living needed by
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1824-491: The following criteria: °Unless waived due to disability. Applicants to the Job Corps program are identified and screened for eligibility by organizations contracted by the U.S. Department of Labor. Each student in the Job Corps goes through three stages of the program: Career Preparation : This period focuses on the assimilation of the student to Job Corps academic assessment, health screening, career exploration, and instruction on career planning. This phase lasts for up to
1881-774: The former student to obtain and retain employment. Career Technical Training programs (often called vocational programs) offered by Job Corps vary by campus location. Example careers include machinist , auto mechanic , electrician , 911 dispatcher , dental assistant , corrections officer , cook , computer technician , landscaper , and truck driver . There are a total of 121 Job Corps centers, including one in Washington, D.C. , and two in Puerto Rico . There are six Regional Offices of Job Corps: In Program Year 2012, approximately 75 percent of Job Corps’ graduates were reportedly placed. Slightly more than 60 percent joined
1938-465: The group participated in an exhibition titled Ten in Search of a Nation at the Studio Museum of Harlem. This exhibition helped to introduce AfriCOBRA to an audience outside of Chicago. The work was not for sale, as its sole function was that of education. The group maintained that they did not want to promote individual gain from the images. The group returned to the Studio Museum in Harlem for
1995-448: The late 1990s, and extending through to the early 2020s, cast doubt on the safety and cost-effectiveness of the program, and have brought calls for the program's end. But bipartisan Congressional support has kept the program alive. With a $ 1.7 billion annual budget (in 2014 and 2018), it is the U.S. Department of Labor's largest-budget training program, providing about 37,000 training slots for young people annually. Starting in 2020,
2052-501: The most notable works was the commemoration of black revolutionaries in the Wall of Respect that was painted by the members of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). Jeff Donaldson , Wadsworth Jarrell , Gerald Williams, and Barbara Jones-Hogu were members originally who later on formed AfriCOBRA, as well as Sylvia Abernathy, Myrna Weaver and others. This wall also became what Barbara Jones-Hogu described as "a visual symbol of Black nationalism and liberation." AfriCOBRA
2109-546: The program is "a good deal for... enrollees themselves," but acknowledged that -- "from society's perspective" -- "the [Job Corps] program... does not pay for itself." In 2009, during the Obama administration , the conservative Heritage Foundation political think-tank described the program's 40-year history as a "record of failure" -- citing specific findings from that Mathematica journal article, including that Job Corps participants were less likely than non-participants to "earn
2166-517: The program on the Depression -era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Established in the 1930s as an emergency relief program, the CCC provided room, board, and employment to thousands of unemployed young people. Though the CCC was discontinued after World War II , Job Corps built on many of its methods and strategies. The first National Director of the Job Corps program was Dr. S. Stephen Uslan, who
2223-470: The program's 25th anniversary. The mural was installed in the U.S. Department of Labor's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Stevens' work has appeared in exhibitions showcasing art from various AfriCOBRA members. His work has also been displayed among other Black artists, including at UMass Amherst and Springfield Technical Community College in February 1992 (the latter of which Stevens also curated), at
2280-468: The program, from liberal and conservative sources, alike, and questions raised about the program's safety and effectiveness. Anecdotal evidence against the program, at specific sites, multiplied in the 2010s. In October 2014, CBS News reported on its investigation of a Job Corps training center in North Texas, quoting a student as experiencing "constant fights" (though one attacker strangled him,
2337-471: The program. That said, Mathematica concluded that the Job Corps is "the only federal training program... shown to increase earnings for this [disadvantaged youth] population." However, the cost of the program, they concluded, exceeds the overall positive economic impact on society (from slightly improved social outcomes, like reduced crime and reduced welfare expenditures). One of the study's leaders, Mathematica senior fellow Peter Schochet, asserted that
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2394-464: The promotion of pride in Black self-identity. Beginning in 1968, AfriCOBRA members met regularly on the South Side of Chicago at the home and studio of Wadsworth and Jae Jarrell where they discussed ways that their art could embody a "Black aesthetic," based on an agreed upon aesthetic creed. The group initially started out as COBRA, The Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. The group's sole purpose
2451-727: The reported jobs were simply in fast food work. A CBS affiliate in Milwaukee checked records on their local Job Corps center, and found 11 police reports between 2012-2014, including a knife attack and a student shot. In 2015, the Washington Post noted "violence and even murders" had occurred "at some Job Corps sites," and -- "despite [an official] zero-tolerance policy [forbidding] violence and illegal drugs" -- [various] "local job corps centers... failed to report and investigate [incidents of] serious misconduct, [such as] drug abuse and assaults," including "sexual assault." Further,
2508-413: The same with "free symmetry", "mimesis at mid-point", "visibility", "luminosity", and "color", more specifically "Cool-ade color" which is deeply associated with AfriCOBRA's art and era. Job Corps Job Corps' mission is to help young people ages 16 through 24 improve the quality of their lives through vocational and academic training aimed at gainful employment and career pathways. The Job Corps
2565-542: The survey subjects' economic outcomes. Their researchers ultimately concluded that "the Job Corps model" shows "promise" -- adding that the program's effect on participating youth "increases [their] educational attainment, reduces [their] criminal activity, and increases [their] earnings for several postprogram years." However, they noted that "tax data" indicated that -- except for "the oldest participants" (young adults in their early 20s) -- most participants' "earnings gains were not sustained" beyond four years after leaving
2622-688: The time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, the Job Corps' operational plans, costs, and budgets had been well developed, including coordination with the U. S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) executed among the agencies. Initiating legislation and budgetary authorizations were drafted by the Kennedy Administration and introduced in both houses of Congress. In 1964, President Johnson , facing military manpower shortages for
2679-453: The workforce or enlisted in the military, while 13.5 percent of Job Corps’ graduates enrolled in education programs. However, analysts have suggested that the data fails to reflect that many of the job placements were in low-skill, low-wage jobs that they could have gotten without Job Corps participation, such as fast-food work or the military. From 1993 to 2008, Princeton University affiliate research organization Mathematica produced
2736-538: Was a chair on the FESTAC Committee of Creative Modern Black and African Dress. After FESTAC'77, AfriCOBRA once again changed its name, AfriCOBRA to Africobra/Farafindugu. Farafindugu, a Malinke word, was interpreted to mean the "complex concept of blackness, brother-hood, and black land," as said by Farafindugu artist Frank Smith. AfriCOBRA wanted to communicate the Black aesthetic as a new sense of purpose;
2793-662: Was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson and reported directly to Sargent Shriver. The current national director of the Office of Job Corps is Rachel Torres. The Job Corps program is currently authorized under Title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act . President Richard Nixon sought to shrink the program, and President Ronald Reagan sought to eliminate it, but the program continued with bipartisan Congressional support. A series of audits, studies and investigations -- public and private -- starting in
2850-693: Was born Nelson Lowell Stevens Jr in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn , New York City. He began attending weekend classes at the Museum of Modern Art after winning a spot in the fourth grade; his winning piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica . In 1962 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio University , and in 1969 he earned his Master of Fine Arts in studio art and art history from Kent State University . In 1956 Stevens began painting murals at jazz nightclubs in Utica, New York ; in return,
2907-607: Was emphasizing self determination and universal Black liberation. Cobra used current events and the political climate as subject for their art, for the purpose of bringing awareness. After the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention , the group responded with a series of paintings meant to represent the Black Family. The paintings functioned as a call to awareness of racial violence in America, which had been demonstrated on national television on August 28, 1968, where demonstrators at
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#17328021419152964-625: Was founded on the South Side of Chicago by a group of artists intent on defining a "black aesthetic." AfriCOBRA artists were associated with the Black Arts Movement in America, a movement that began in the mid-1960s and that celebrated culturally-specific expressions of the contemporary Black community in the realms of literature, theater, dance and the visual arts. The group operated on the principles of social responsibility, artistic excellence, local artistic involvement and lastly,
3021-618: Was invited to FESTAC'77 , the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria. The festival saw over 15,000 artists from around the world in attendance. The event was held from January 15 through February 12, 1977, and all people of African descent were invited. They were organized by geographical zones. Jeff Donaldson was placed in charge of the North American artists delegation, while Jae Jarrell
3078-551: Was more than a collection of artists; it was a passionate call for freedom founded on a set of philosophical and aesthetic principles. In the struggle for liberation and equality within the African-American community, AfriCOBRA represented these principles through the medium of art. Barbara Jones-Hogu characterized the artistic expression of the AfriCOBRA movement by saying: "[Our art] must communicate to its viewer
3135-676: Was originally designed by a task force established by Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz reporting to Manpower Administrator Sam Merrick . In 1962, the youth unemployment rate was twice the non-youth unemployment rate and the purpose of the initiative was to create a program whereby Youth members of the program could spend half of their time improving national parks and forests and the other half of their time improving their basic education skills which were severely limiting their occupational accomplishments. The Job Corps Task Force initially recommended that Job Corps programs be limited to Federal National Parks, National Forests, and other Federal Lands. By
3192-599: Was scheduled to be on view from March until September 2023 . After earning his bachelors degree, Stevens became a middle school art teacher in Cleveland, Ohio . At the time he also taught at the Karamu House . The Cleveland Board of Education later placed him at the Cleveland Museum of Art . Stevens was an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University from 1969 until 1971, during which he taught
3249-720: Was shown at UMass Amherst. In September 2019, Stevens had a solo exhibition titled "Work from the 60s to the Present" at the Kravets Wehby Gallery in New York City. In September 2022, a retrospective of Stevens' work, entitled "Nelson Stevens' Color Rapping", opened at the University of Maryland Global Campus , where it remained on view until January 2023. The exhibition then transferred to the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts, where it
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