VALDOSTA — The City of Valdosta will soon be home to the state’s flagship center for employment services.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond was on hand Monday to break ground on the 35,000-square-foot, $4.3-million facility that officials promise will redefine how the state handles employment services.

“We’re changing the culture of the Labor Department from what has been known as unemployment offices to career centers,” Thurmond said. “We still obviously assist workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, but we see our mission as much broader in terms of career development, lifelong learning and continuing to improve the skills and training of the workforce.”

The Ashley Street location in downtown Valdosta is also a push to continue revitalization efforts, Mayor James Rainwater told a crowd assembled for the groundbreaking. The center will employ between 55 to 60 people, and, along with the nearby Human Resources building, will help provide easy access to essential state-sponsored services.

The Labor Department operates 53 career centers throughout the state, and Thurmond promised the “state-of-the-art” Valdosta facility will serve as a template for future centers. The Valdosta center will also serve Brooks, Cook, Echols and Lanier counties, in addition to Lowndes.

Rainwater praised Thurmond for helping push job creation and development in the area.

“Valdosta is a long way from Wall Street, but the effects (of the recession) are being felt right here on Main Street,” he said.

The City of Valdosta will pay for the building’s construction and then lease the center to the Labor Department for 20 years. Once the facility is paid for, the department will own the building. Thurmond said the arrangement represents a new era of public-public partnerships between Georgia communities and his department.

The center will offer services to both employers and employees. Job seekers will have access to phone lines and fax machines as well as computers to craft and refine resumes and access employment opportunities via the Labor Department’s Web site. Career Center staffers will also be on hand to perform skill assessments and assist with interview preparation.

Employers will have space for screening and interviewing applicants, with access to downsizing and layoff assistance as well as employment law consultations.

Susan Dukes, manager of the Valdosta Career Center, said the new building will offer a mammoth upgrade in terms of space, and service provision that simply can’t be matched by the department’s current Oak Street office.

“I think one of the real benefits will be more room,” she said. “We’ll have training rooms, meeting rooms, a classroom and a resource room. If you don’t have the size, you don’t have those things.”

Dukes said the current center serves more than 12,000 people a year.

Thurmond also praised a new feature of the center which will be to incorporate rehabilitation services for disabled citizens with employment services.

“I guarantee that every Georgia citizen, regardless of disability will have access to all of the information and opportunities we have at the Georgia Department of Labor,” he said. “We don’t care if you walk or roll into our office, you will be treated with dignity and respect.”

Thurmond said the inclusion of rehabilitation services in Career Centers signals a significant shift in how the state will serve the disabled community. The era of segregating employment services for the disabled is past, he said.

“This center will have the latest in assistive technology to help men and women with disabilities access information about training and employment opportunities,” he said.

Career services are particularly important in the Lowndes County area, where employment totals jumped 14,000 between 1990 and 2000. The fastest growing areas are in retail and service sectors.

Thurmond said the decision to locate his department’s flagship center in South Georgia was important because it signaled a commitment to economic development





and employment opportunities outside of Atlanta.

“We purposely set out to build what will be our flagship Career Center in the state of Georgia here in South Georgia to send a very clear message: we are focused on creating job opportunities and economic development opportunities throughout the state of Georgia,” he said. “We want the message to be very clear that we are going to work from one end of the state to the other to try and continue and support the employers and job seekers.”



To contact reporter Bill Roberts, please call 244-3400, ext. 245.



On the Web: www.dol.state.ga.us