There is no longer a need, or funding, for the Ford Worker's Action Centre on Walker Road. After five years it's closing its doors for good.

John Engleman was a co-ordinator at the centre. He came to the centre to find work but instead found himself helping run the centre.

He called the closure bittersweet.

"We should be celebrating that the adjustment centre is closing, because it's exactly right," said Engleman. "There are no new layoffs and our success rate is probably 75-80 per cent. So really, there's 25 [per cent] who have not adapted to life outside of Ford."

Stephen Peukay also found a job working at the centre. He became a counsellor there after being laid off.

Peukay said the centre was a place where laid-off workers could share their frustrations.

"Knowing that there was always someone here to vent to was always nice," said Peukay, a father of two. "Everyone always wanted to vent. There was a lot of frustration, a lot of — not depression — but there were some downturns and stuff everyone went through."

Engleman agreed that the centre gave Ford workers a place of their own during a tough transition.

"Here you come in you grab a chair, you sit down maybe grab a water or a coffee and wait your turn," he said of the centre's atmosphere. "You're not waiting in line and pulling a number and you have no identity. Here you have identity."

Laid-off Ford workers will have to use the services at the Unemployed Help Centre from now on.