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Twenty-eight leaders. Fifty-six visits to five local Workforce Centers. Zero job training services offered. A local job training testing project completed by The Jobs and Affordable Housing Campaign (JAHC) documents that local workforce centers are not supplying the much-needed and federally mandated job training to low-income workers in the Twin Cities area.

Mounting evidence is showing that while federal money is supposedly allocated to local workforce centers to fund job training for low-income workers, very few people see any of that training.

The results of the testing project were revealed at a community hearing sponsored by JACH and Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN) on Aug. 21. Wellstone staffers committed to the hearing at the National People's Action conference in March.

The crowd of 150 people included grassroots leaders, Wellstone and other policy-making officials, Workforce Development representatives and local businesses.

Tim Landers, a JAHC leader, told the crowd that out of 56 visits: zero leaders received any job training, 50 were directed to computers for self-serve job search, three were offered an orientation and zero were asked if they were a veteran or in any other priority category.

Landers, a veteran, went 10 times to a local Workforce Center.

"By the seventh visit, I went in and asked what was it going to take for me to get service as a veteran. That was the first time I was able to talk to someone besides the receptionist."

Once he talked to the veteran's representative, he asked about job training and was told that there was none. Denise Cole told her story of waiting at a Workforce Center for 15 minutes while the receptionist finished a personal conversation. Once the receptionist was willing to talk to her, Cole asked what services they offered and the receptionist replied 'I don't know. I just answer the phones.'

Willie Fields made three trips to Workforce Centers. All of them had job listings on the computer that were at least three months old.

"I think that the job postings should be updated every week," Fields said. Fields added that at one Workforce Center he once to wait for over an hour. "I finally left," he said. "I am a veteran. I made sure to tell the Workforce Centers because I know veterans get preference, but a veteran's representative was not always available. I got assistance at only one of the three Workforce Centers, and that one I visited with a group."

At the hearing, Wellstone and workforce development representatives agreed to work with JAHC to improve local job training and services.

Rebecca Yanish, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development, also agreed to work with JAHC to improve Minnesota's Workforce Centers. She was quoted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as saying, "If it's as fundamental as people walking into the door and not getting the services they need, that's something we need to look at closely."

The Anti-Displacement Project in Springfield, MA completed the same testing project in their area earlier this year on a local for-profit workforce center. A-DP leaders had the workforce center shut down.