An $823,755 special National Emergency Grant from the U.S Department of Labor has been awarded to help up to 1,100 former workers at International Paper’s Courtland, Ala., mill obtain new jobs. IP’s Courtland mill was shut down earlier this year, leaving workers from seven Alabama counties and one Tennessee county without jobs.

 

The U.S. Department of Labor grant will let the state boost assistance at Alabama Career Center offices in Sheffield and Decatur to help the former mill employees find new jobs.

 

"Anyone who has been laid off from a job, particularly a job they have held for a decade or more, knows the hardship faced by their families and their communities," Governor Robert Bentley said in a WAFF Channel 48 (Montgomery, Ala.) television news report this past week. "We remain committed to provide whatever resources possible to assist former International Paper employees to obtain new jobs and resume normal lives."

 

The career centers will provide former employees with job search and resume assistance, assessment, and career counseling, relocation guidance, training referrals, workshop services, and access to computers and the internet, WAFF noted.