Job Corps, the nation’s largest residential career training and education program, has been ordered to shut down campuses, terminate staff and, most troublingly, remove the tens of thousands of 16 to 24-year-olds who reside on those campuses. More than 4,500 of those students were homeless before joining Job Corps and potentially face a perilous future.

Job Corps helps students acquire industry-recognized credentials, high school diplomas or equivalents, and the social and employability skills needed to enter careers, the U.S. Armed Forces, apprenticeships, or post-secondary education. Comprehensive studies indicate that Job Corps increases participants’ earnings and decreases their future reliance on public assistance.