Local News in Brief : Job Grant to Aid Workers

The state Job Training Coordinating Council recently approved a $293,545 job-assistance grant to help workers in Redondo Beach who lost their jobs when a January storm damaged King Harbor.

“It’s a unique grant in that it’s the first time that the state has ever provided a grant like that out of JTPA (Job Training Partnership Act) funds for a natural disaster,” said Jan Vogel, director of the South Bay job-training program. The money is usually used to help workers displaced by plant closings, he said.

Diana Marshall, the council’s executive director, said, “Employment problems that result from natural disasters are usually handled by the Employment Development Department and other resources” but because “those resources were completely exhausted” the council allocated some of its limited funds to help.

About 300 people lost their jobs when storm damage forced four businesses to shut down indefinitely and more than 20 others to close temporarily, officials said.

Vogel said most of the state grant will be used to help about 100 workers who are particularly hard to place because they speak little or no English or have limited education.

The money will go for training for those people, as well as assisting them with transportation and child care costs while they are in training or looking for new jobs, Vogel said.

The Job Training Partnership Act office on the Redondo Beach Pier is assisting other workers with job referrals and counseling on benefits available to them, said Helen Wong, operations manager.