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When Lonnie Brent heard about a four-month program that could train and certify him to fix heating and air-conditioning systems, he couldn’t wait to apply.
Homeless for the previous two years, the 57-year-old Charlotte, N.C., man was accepted.
One cold, drizzly morning recently, he returned from a repair call with his instructor and classmates feeling upbeat.
“It’s a good field,” he said. “No matter where you go, somebody needs heating or air conditioning.”
The National Urban League, which runs the program, hopes he will soon become another success story in its 100-year history of helping black Americans lift themselves from poverty to prosperity.
Urban League officials say they have always focused on providing inner-city residents with a pipeline to better jobs, housing, and education. But with today’s bad economy sucking both jobs and hope out of declining urban centers, they say its mission is just as urgent now as it was a century ago.
“When times are tough,” says Marc Morial, the league’s president, “people look to us.”
The Urban League serves about two million people annually. One of its biggest challenges today, says Mr. Morial, is the fact that the economic downturn has caused overwhelming numbers of people to seek help from its 98 affiliates, spread across 38 states and the District of Columbia.
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