KINGWOOD, W.Va. – Governor Jim Justice will attend the inaugural graduation of the jobs & Hope program in Kingwood at Camp Dawson THursday.
The Jobs & Hope program was introduced last month as comprehensive drug treatment and job training program.
“This started with just a dream,” Gov. Justice said. “We’ve got drugs affecting every family in this state, one way or another. We have to do something about it.”
The program was established with $29.7 million appropriation from the state legislature last year.
“It was just this simple: we had to reach out and truly give the people that were affected by these terrible drugs treatment, and us pay for it,” Gov. Justice said. “The next thing we needed to do was train them; train them to where they could really be able to do something, and give them pathways – like a pathway to expungement, a pathway to get their driver’s license back, a pathway to come back into society.”
The students to be recognized Thursday complete a grader operator course conducted by the West Virginia National Guard.