The Missouri Mentoring Partnership program in Cape Girardeau has been singled out for its efforts to help Mingo Job Corps students get a solid start in the work force.

The state-funded program will receive an Alpha Award from the National Job Corps Association.

Missouri Mentoring Partnership is one of three community organizations across the country to win the award. In all, 10 Alpha Awards spread across three categories will be presented by the Job Corps at a ceremony June 9 in Washington, D.C.

Marge Sullivan, who coordinates the Missouri Mentoring Partnership program in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties, is scheduled to attend the ceremony.

Don Riggle, director of the Mingo Job Corps Center near Puxico, also plans to attend. Riggle nominated the Missouri Mentoring Partnership for the award.

The Alpha Award is named for the brightest star in a constellation. The winners represent "beacons of hope, lights of opportunity and a whole new universe of positive possibilities for youth," said LaVera Leonard, president of the National Job Corps Association.

This year's winners include Walgreen, AT&T and the Indiana National Guard.

The Job Corps began 35 years ago. It is the oldest and largest residential job training and education program for low-income people ages 16 to 24.

Job Corps serves 68,000 people at 118 centers nationwide. In the 1997-1998 year, 80 percent of participants found jobs or enrolled in higher education.

Sullivan said the award is a tribute to the efforts of the Mingo Job Corps as well as the work done by Missouri Mentoring Partnership.

Sullivan's organization helps at-risk people ages 16 to 22 find jobs by emphasizing education and training. It works with area employers in securing entry-level jobs. Many of the jobs are with fast-food restaurants, factories and retail busineses. The companies provide mentors to help the new workers.

Area employers get a wage-tax credit for hiring workers through the Missouri Mentoring program.

Sullivan said Missouri Mentoring currently has about 41 people employed through the program.

"Some kids have been on the job almost two years," said Sullivan.

Clients must be working toward obtaining a general education degree or high school diploma or have already graduated.

Sullivan and her two-member staff of Stacy Taylor and Scott Porter operate out of offices at the Private Industry Council in Cape Girardeau. The program operates on a $153,000 budget. The money comes from a state grant funneled through the Private Industry Council. The money pays the salaries of the staff and helps pay for everything from clothing to taxi coupons and haircuts to help clients enter the job world.

"Every kid has a different set of needs," she said.

The program has been in Cape Girardeau for four years. Sullivan has served as the local coordinator for the past two-and-a-half years.

Sullivan said the program deals with students who don't have job skills or even a work ethic. "There is just an empty window frame," she said. "Our job is to try to install a window of opportunity."

Porter, associate coordinator, teaches job readiness skills, which include everything from filling out a job application to sitting properly in a chair.

Clients are referred to the program by the Division of Family Services, the Division of Youth Services, the Mingo Job Corps and alternative schools.

The Mingo Job Corps is one of two operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is situated on the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge near Puxico.

More than 200 students currently are enrolled at the Mingo Job Corps Center. Most of the students live at the center. They can stay for up to two years. Many of the students are high school dropouts.

"They can come in and get a high school diploma and get a vocational trade and be placed in a job," said the center's Steve Fowler. Fowler works to get the students placed in jobs.

The Mingo Job Corps prepares young people for a variety of construction, clerical and other jobs.

The Missouri Mentoring Partnership in Cape Girardeau works with Mingo Job Corps students to help them secure jobs after they graduate from the center.