The Recreation Department at the Alaska Job Corps Center is an active program, not only during the day, but also during student leisure hours, evenings, and weekends. Throughout the training day, students participate in Health and Wellness classes, which may include playing team sports such as basketball, volleyball, and floor hockey, or individual activities such as using the climbing wall, weight training, cardio training, arts-and-crafts, taking walks/hikes, or playing team-building initiative games.

The Recreation Department offers a variety of options for participation in and development of lifelong leisure time skills. Examples include: basketball, softball, volleyball, and Native Youth Olympics. Both women's and men's basketball teams actively host tournaments and participate in tournaments both locally and throughout Alaska. Intramural co-ed activities include basketball, softball, floor hockey, volleyball, and flag football.

Seasonal and non-competitive sports activities for students include, but are not limited to skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, camping, photography, gold panning, fishing, horseback riding, in-line skating, canoeing, and biking, and more. There is a wilderness program that allows students to participate in leadership and outdoor trips that can last several days, often in remote areas, parks and wilderness areas.

The Arts-and-Crafts room is a busy area with quilting, painting, fiber arts, wood burning, pottery, beading, sewing, model crafting, and many other activities. It offers opportunities for students to pursue artistic endeavors, some of which have been displayed in Washington, DC.

There is a billiards room with a foosball table, ping-pong table, and pool tables. Here, students may relax with their friends, play board games, and enjoy snacks from the various vending machines. The Recreation Department has weekend and evening activities that include movies, bowling, shopping, hiking, biking, professional hockey games or other activities around center or in the Matanuska Valley or Anchorage areas.

The residential program is a big part of the Job Corps program. Residential living contributes to the personal and social development of students. It fosters an atmosphere that exerts influence on character and personality that is often the key factor in helping students to make a successful transition to the demands of the outside/employment world. The residential program provides continuous staff supervision, 24 hours a day. The critical function of the residential program is to provide an atmosphere in which students feel safe and secure at all times.

Though the residential living aspect of the program occurs outside the hours when education and vocational training occurs, there is in fact a great deal of training and instruction, both structured and unstructured, provided by the residential living program. The residential living program has a great impact on many areas of students' lives by promoting positive relationships among racial/ethnic groups, motivating alienated or discouraged youth, enhancing students' adaptation to unfamiliar group living situations, fostering changes in counterproductive attitudes and habits, and encouraging positive peer group and interpersonal interactions.

The CFDC is conveniently attached to the family dormitory making the transition from home to school easier. While parents are in training during the day, their children are busy in a variety of developmentally appropriate activities designed to be fun and educational.

The dining hall also houses the classroom for the Culinary Arts vocation. Those who have attended the center's Community Council luncheons know that Culinary Arts students enjoy affiliation with the Junior Chef's Association, which provides a channel for ongoing contact with the longer professional community.

Alaska Job Corps Center is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and operated by Chugach McKinley, Inc., a subsidiary of Chugach Alaska Corporation located in Anchorage.

Planning for the center began during the late 1980s. Construction began in 1992 with the support of the Alaska Congressional Delegation, Alaska State Legislature, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, City of Palmer, the Regional Office of Job Corps in Seattle, and many individuals and organizations throughout the state. The center is located on 20 acres of land that was donated by the City of Palmer and the Mat-Su Borough. Most buildings on the campus were completed in 1994. Since then, student trainees have assisted in the construction of three modular classrooms, a large storage building, and a gazebo, as well as maintenance of the original buildings and center grounds.