A nonprofit aimed at helping formerly incarcerated individuals obtain their CDL is out $15,000 after the trucking school they paid to train their participants was shut down in the recent federal crackdown.
Colorado Trucking College based in Denver was shut down as part of the 110 trucking schools shuttered by the federal government. The now-closed school was the facility used by fortified Academy to get their ex-convicts trained and into the driver’s seat. Now, the program says they aren’t sure what the next move is.
“We help [students] as far as funding and things of that nature, so they don’t have to pay out of pocket,” Davon Hawkins, director of operations at Fortified Academy, said to Denver 7.
The academy had already paid the trucking school $15,000 for four individuals to attend CDL training.
“We found out from one of our students a day after [the school] was shut down, saying that he’s no longer able to provide service,” Hawkins said.
The Academy says it has received no response from the shuttered trucking school, but hasn’t gotten its money back, and cannot afford to pay for the already-enrolled students to attend another trucking school.
“We cannot afford to pay twice for training, but we refuse to abandon them,” said executive director Monica Gilbert.
Fortified Academy is now working with officials to find solutions to the issue while it waits for an answer from the school.
“We work with all the workforce [centers] in the metropolitan area, and so now it’s affecting us because they’re looking at us saying, ‘Hey, we funded these students. Why are they not now going through the program?’” Hawkins said. “And so this is where we stand right now. We’re left with the bag in our hand.”
