N.C. Central University received a $200,000 grant March 3 from the Golden Leaf Foundation. It is designed to help workers who were laid off from the tobacco industry gain experience in a new career.

The hospitality and tourism program at NCCU will train the workers from the greater Triangle area to work in the tourism and hospitality industries.

“It gives people the opportunity for a second chance,” said Chancellor James H. Ammons.

“Tourism is North Carolina’s No. 2 after agriculture,” said Valeria Lee, an NCCU trustee and President of Golden LEAF.

Ammons commended Lee for her dedication to the people and the program.

“Mrs. Lee is making the lives better of people who have been displaced in the tobacco industry,” said Ammons.

According to the News & Observer, the program will recruit and retrain a minimum of 45 new employees or existing employees.

First priority is given to those who worked in the tobacco industry. All recipients are required to participate in internships.

The Golden Leaf program will include three training tracks. One is in food services, which is being offered through the existing culinary program at Alamance Community College. Another is in lodging, offered through Wake Tech. The third is in management training, offered at NCCU.

The program will be available to residents in Durham, Wake, Orange, Chatham, Person, Vance, Alamance, Granville, Johnston, Lee, Franklin, Harnett, Caswell, and Warren counties.

The Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Triangle Area Hotel and Motel Association, the local Workforce Development Committee and the Employment Security Commission offices in each of the 14 counties will recruit and place participants.

“The main task is to make sure they get the word out,” said James Williams, dean of the business school.

About 32,000 people wereunemployed in the 14 county areas as of June 2001, according to the Employment Security Commission.

Counties in the Piedmont region continue to face large layoffs because the areas surrounding them are being taken over by manufacturing employment.

“The jobs are not only for folks who had tobacco as a part of their economic placement,” said Lee. “It’s also for people who are looking for new goals of building a better life and community.”

The first class in food and lodging started April 1, and the management training courses will start with NCCU’s summer session.

The Golden LEAF foundation was founded in 1999 to distribute funds received in a settlement from litigations involving the manufacturing of tobacco products.

The mission of the Golden Leaf Foundation is to support organizations that promote the social welfare of North Carolina’s citizens and to receive and distribute funds to lessen the economic impact of changes in our tobacco economy.

The foundation has received $164,770,000 in payments as a result of the settlement of tobacco litigation .

Over the next 25 years, the Foundation will receive approximately $2.3 billion in principal from the state of North Carolina as a result of the tobacco settlement.