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The Official Legal Organ ofDeKalb County, GA. Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker and Stone Mountain.
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thechampionnewspaper.com
SECTION A: VOL. 24 NO. 52
TheChampion
JUNE 25 - JULY 1, 2015
ist Place
General excellence
Award winner
Georgia Press Association
‘Better Newspaper Contest’
2007, 2009-2015
500
Doraville streamlines updates for Assembly
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalbchamp.com
Doraville is taking care of busi
ness.
Doraville Mayor Donna Pitt
man and other city officials hosted
a town hall meeting on June 22 that
brought more than three dozen con
cerned guests into the city’s Civic
Center.
“We have a lot of exciting things
going on in our city and the whole
region. Were going to continue to
have a lot of exciting things going
on, and as we go along, we want
to continue to keep the public in
formed,” Pittman said.
The Bleakly Group, a consulting
firm working on Doraville’s redevel
opment plan, presented information
on the proposed Tax Allocation Dis
trict (TAD).
Vice President of The Integral
Group Eric Pinckney and partner
Dave Schmit updated officials and
attendees on the Assembly develop
ment project located on the former
General Motors site.
Audience members were asked
to write down questions throughout
the presentation to be answered by
See Doraville on page 15A
County division has 80
youth jobs available
by Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalbchamp. com
DeKalb Workforce De
velopment wants to give jobs
to 80 youth, ages 14 to 24.
“We work to put people
back to work,” said Cheryl
Stone, director ofDeKalb
Workforce Development.
“We work to connect busi
nesses with a skilled work
force, whether it’s through
customized training for job
seekers, on-the-job training
or if.. .someone just needs
to dust off their resume and
package themselves a little
bit differently.”
Currently approximately
175 DeKalb youth are en
rolled in the federally funded
year-round program. In ad
dition to summer jobs, the
program provides academic
remediation and leadership
and entrepreneurship train
ing.
“We put young people in
a position that they will be
productive citizens,” Stone
said.
Seventy-five percent of
the approximately $1.8 mil
lion in annual funding is al
located for the out-of-school
youth participants—unem
ployed high school gradu
ates, school dropouts, or
those with juvenile or crimi
nal records. Twenty-percent
of the funds are used to give
youth jobs in the private or
public sectors.
Stone said the goal is to
put 250 youth in jobs, and
DeKalb Workforce is “ac
tively recruiting.”
To be eligible for the pro
gram, youth must be from
low-income families and
have another “barrier” such
as homelessness, basic skill
deficiency, pregnant or par
enting, a runaway, in foster
care, or a school dropout.
Ashton Stephens, 20, of
Decatur began participat
ing in the program when he
was a sophomore at Destiny
Academy of Excellence. Now
he has a full-time job as a re
ceptionist at DeKalb Work
force Development
“I’m the first line of con
tact,” said Stephens, who has
been working full-time since
February. “I just hold that
friendly atmosphere and try
to keep it as comfortable as
possible as you come in.
“I pretty much know...
about all the job opportu
nities and services that we
provide,” he added. “I [let] all
of our customers and clients
know about what’s going on.”
When Stephens was a
sophomore in high school,
a DeKalb Workforce case
worker had a recruitment
session at Destiny Academy
of Excellence.
“I wasn’t supposed to be
in the meeting,” Stephens
said. “They called for all the
seniors to stay in the cafete
ria. . .and I just decided to
stay in the cafeteria.”
After the meeting, Ste
phens talked with the case
worker and signed up for the
program.
“I didn’t really know
what I wanted to do while
I was in high school, so
DeKalb Workforce is here to
get me on the right path, just
to help me out,” Stephens
said.
In the program, Stephens
started working as a janitor
at Destiny Academy, then at
Miller Grove High School.
During the summer after
his junior year, he worked
in the county’s property ap
praisal office as an office as
sistant, doing “a lot of filing
and data entry,” Stephens
said. The next summer, he
See Workforce on page 15A
Blaine Allen, a recent graduate of DeKalb Early College Academy,
is enrolled in DeKalb Workforce Development’s youth program.
Ashton Stephens, 20, landed a full-time job at DeKalb Workforce
after working in the summer youth program. Photos by Andrew
Cauthen
64 116
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