Angela commented on Group 2 and Group 4.
Andrea commented on Group 2 and Group 5.
Angela
Henry was assigned the introduction, post the paper, and summary table, Andrea
Blaylock was assigned the main programs of the organizations, and references,
Nichole Mann was assigned the comparison and implications. The entire group did
a review of the final project.
Nichole responded to groups 2 and 4.
Introduction
Our
group chose Indianapolis Urban League (IUL) and also Goodwill Industries for
our two organizations. We believe that both of these organization have made a
great impact in the field of adult education. One of the reasons we selected
the two organizations was because they both serve under resourced communities
and populations. We will demonstrate in our assignment the importance of these
organizations by providing the missions, goals and significant information that
makes these organizations stand out in the field of adult education.
Indianapolis Urban League
The
first organization is Indianapolis Urban League (IUL). This organization is located
in Indianapolis, Indiana and has long rich history in the city of Indianapolis
for developing and helping African Americans and other minorities who live in
under resourced communities. The IUL was founded in 1965. The IUL was founded
as a non-profit, non-partisan, interracial
community-based social service/civil rights organization. The IUL receives
funds from several different agencies in Indiana to operate day to day services.
The IUL was founded by the late Thomas W. Binford and the late Atty. Henry J.
Richardson, Jr. The late Sam H. Jones, served as President & CEO of the IUL
from 1966 to 2002. He is labeled as the father of the IUL, because he was there
almost from the birth of the organization.
The IUL has an amazing mission
statement: “The mission of the IUL is to assist African Americans, other
minorities, and disadvantaged individuals to achieve social and economic
equality” (indplsul). What a great mission statement for a great organization
that has proven its work in the community.
For almost 50 years this
organization has worked tireless to provide education, workforce development,
and equal opportunities to name a few to build a relationship between the
races. The goal of IUL is to help disadvantage people, and minorities, gain
economic and social strength by offering array of programs so that they can
succeed.
Goodwill Industries
The
second organization our group chose to review was Goodwill Industries. We chose
this
organization because of all the beneficial programs, that Goodwill offers
and because of their mission statement and all of the useful things that they
do in the community. Goodwill Industries was founded in 1902 in Boston, by Rev.
Edgar J Helm. He was a Methodist minister and also a social innovator. The way
Goodwill got started was by Helms collecting used household goods
and clothing in wealthier areas of the city, then hiring the poor and training
them to mend and repair the used goods. The goods were then resold or were
given to the people who repaired them. The system worked, and the Goodwill
philosophy of “a hand up, not a hand out” was born. Is this not the best
philosophy ever! I just love what Goodwill stands for. Because Dr. Helms had
such a great vision that lives on today, it has grown into a $40 billion non-profit
organization. Helms idea was brilliant.
Helms collected used household goods and clothing in wealthier areas of the
city, then trained and hired those who were poor to mend and repair the used
goods. The goods were then resold or were given to the people who repaired
them. The system worked, and the Goodwill philosophy of “a hand up, not a hand
out” was born. Dr. Helms would describe Goodwill as Industrial industry as well
as social service enterprise. Goodwill offers so many services to the
community, such as a provider of employment, training and rehabilitation for
people of limited employability, and a source of temporary assistance for
individuals whose resources were depleted.
Indianapolis
Urban League
Main Organization Programs
The Indianapolis Urban
League is leading a new empowerment movement to give people the skills and
access they need to take an active role in determining the direction, quality
of life and policies shaping their communities, The main focus of the Indianapolis
Urban League (IUL) programs and services respond to the needs of African
Americans, other minorities, and disadvantaged individuals to achieve social
and economic equality. These programs include education and youth empowerment,
health and quality of life empowerment, civic engagement and leadership
empowerment, civil rights and racial justice empowerment, and empowerment
(housing and family services, information and technology, and workforce
development through employment and skills training).
Workforce
Development – Employment and Skills Training
Within the Skilled
Workforce Development (SWD) department, the Employment Readiness Program has an
exceptional record of assisting a broad range of citizens with finding stable
employment in Marion County and resolving issues related to work. The Urban
League activities include resume preparation, case management, skills
assessments, and employment-readiness training. Highly qualified staff from the
non-profit can also arrange for job search support, interviewing techniques,
job leads, soft-skills training in regard to good attendance and work habits, a
basic introduction to computer applications, and referrals. CARE - Community
Access and Reentry Effort focuses on the unique employment needs of
African-Americans and other disadvantaged young adults with histories of
nonviolent, nonsexual felony offenses. In addition to providing guidance and
help with the job-search process, the program offers a continuum of services to
support the transition back into the community.
Following the best practices of the Ready4Work national demonstrations,
the program provides employment readiness, education, job placement and intensive
case management services. Wrap-around services addressing substance abuse,
health care, healthy relationship skills, and other issues are available, as
well. Ready4Work is a nationally recognized program assisting ex-offenders with
re-entry into the community and workforce, effectively leading clients
toward a productive life. Ready4Work operates with a four-pronged approach;
case management, life-coaching, job training and job placement assistance. Ready4Work
motivates and moves individuals to become productive, responsible citizens
within the community.
Goodwill
Industries International, Inc.
Goodwill Industries offer many
programs in the area of job training, vocational training, and career services.
Through free online services, adults can take advantage of career exploration
and skills training programs. Two of those programs are GoodProspects and
GCFLearnFree.org/GCFAprendeLibre.org. GoodProspects® was originally funded by a
grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration
and currently supported by Accenture. Its main purpose is to help adults who
are looking for a job or a new career have the ability to assess which job or
career path is right for them. Registered users explore career paths in a
variety of fields business and financial, health care, information technology,
hospitality and food Service, clerical and office, green jobs, customer
service, retail, education and social services. GCFLearnFree.org offers online
classes to adults in math, reading, technology, Microsoft Office, work and
career, and everyday life. GCFLearnFree.org offers 125 tutorials,
including more than 1,100 lessons, videos, and interactives, completely free.
(Who We Are)
Through a partnership with Walmart,
Goodwill is providing no-cost employment career services for women. The Beyond
Jobs program engages women to map career pathways that lead to economic
success. The main goal of this program is for women to make connections to
employment opportunities, training programs and resources that support success,
financial education and resources to help you reach long-term goals, support
services to help you advance in your career, one on one career counseling,
grooming and image assistance. (Employment, Training & Education.) In
addition, through private funding, Goodwill approximately 6,000 Hispanic
descendants attended courses such as General Educational Development (GED) test
preparation, English as Second Language (ESL), computer skills, occupational
training and job readiness. Goodwill provides vocational opportunities to
people with barriers to employment. Trainers work with people with disabilities
to reveal their skills, fine tune them, so they can apply their newfound skills
in the real world job market. Goodwill’s vocational services include
assessment, remedial education, job training, job coaching, career placement,
and supported employment for individuals with disabilities. (Vocational
Training)
Comparison
As
adult education organizations, Goodwill Industries Inc. and Indianapolis Urban
League share a focus on workforce development and training. This is the central
focus of Goodwill Industries, with 9.8 million people provided with some form
of workforce development training in 2013, 7.8 million of those people
receiving those services online. (About
us) IUL has a more diverse range of interests as an organization, but their
job training programs focus on many of the same client groups as Goodwill:
racial and ethnic minorities, adults over 55 years old, single parents, people
with physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities, and people with
criminal convictions. Both organizations consider job training for marginalized
groups to be high priority organizational goals. The organizations also provide
similar services for job training, including job banks, computer stations and
other physical resources, computer literacy training, and job search training
and workshops.
Goodwill
and Indianapolis Urban League share similar philosophies, but with some divide
in focus. As a large, nationwide organization, Goodwill by necessity has a more
narrow focus. Employment training and resources for adults is the primary focus
of Goodwill training centers. In comparison, the Indianapolis Urban League
focuses on multiple groups and program types. IUL is a local affiliate of the
National Urban League, which draws an interesting point of comparison to
Goodwill. Goodwill affiliates are centered around employment, while National
Urban League affiliates are more tailored to the community in which they are
located. IUL also places a larger focus on social justice issues than Goodwill.
Racial identity and civil rights are explicitly addressed as areas of interest
for IUL, with promoting civic engagement and racial harmony in the Indianapolis
area listed among their goals as an organization. This is a less explicit goal
for Goodwill, with their most well-known focus being on job training for
veterans and people with disabilities. However, both organizations come from a
philosophical position of job training as a means to build up a community.
Goodwill Industries founder Rev. Edgar Helms described the organization as an
“industrial program as well as a social services enterprise.” (About us) Like the Indianapolis Urban
League, Goodwill approaches job training and workforce development as a social
service.
Because
of their status as large scale nonprofit organizations, Goodwill Industries and
the National Urban League draw from similar funding streams. Both organizations
receive a large portion of their funding through government grants,
fundraising, and donations. As an affiliate of the National Urban League, the
Indianapolis Urban League is structurally similar. Similar funding structures
and legal frameworks as nonprofit organizations would influence client
populations, affiliate requirements, and other factors that influence
affiliate-based nonprofit educational organizations.
Implications
Upcoming
and ongoing projects for both Goodwill Industries and the Indianapolis Urban
League suggest that their focus on educating adults to obtain gainful
employment is constantly adapting. Both are moving toward efforts that target
specific groups; for example, Goodwill has launched Beyond Jobs, which targets
single mothers, and the Senior Community Service Employment Program, providing
on the job training for people over 55 years old, while the Indianapolis Urban
League has also targeted people 55+ with plans to launch senior-focused
computer literacy training and has reached out to people with nonviolent,
nonsexual felony convictions with their Community Access and Reentry Effort.
The development of targeted efforts to certain groups at high risk for
unemployment and underemployment are not necessarily revolutionary to adult
education, but they do serve as examples of a growing trend. Targeting efforts
toward particular groups is often a condition of certain grants or government
funding, and it may be a sign of the direction that legislative interests have
taken that nonprofit organizations are rolling out more specialized programs
and services for adult learners. Another potential example of this is
Goodwill’s Pathways Out of Poverty program, which assists with training for
“green” jobs. As environmental issues become a bigger focus of legislative
interest, we may see nonprofit adult education programs branch out into that
area more often.
Another
area where overlap in the programs provided by these two agencies demonstrates
larger implications for the field of adult education is the heavy focus on
computer literacy. Many people and programs assume computer access and literacy
for learners, but in practice, this is not the reality. Nonprofit adult
education agencies recognize computer literacy as a significant barrier to
reentry into the workforce for older adults, and are regularly providing
services designed to serve the needs of this demographic. Simultaneously, these
organizations are developing and expanding their own technological footprint.
The Indianapolis Urban League offers a digital job bank and assistance with
using it, and Goodwill has launched GCLearnFree, a collection of 750 self-paced
online courses in computer skills, math, reading, and other subjects that can
help people lacking basic skills to enter the workforce.
Adult
education organizations come in all shapes and sizes, but nonprofit
organizations are one of the most familiar to many people because of how
connected they are to the community. Goodwill’s 2900+ retail sites are only the
face of a larger organization with a dedication to adult learning and job skill
development. The Indianapolis Urban League takes a social justice view; part of
their role as a social organization is to contribute to the education of the
community in skills that will help them become more productive citizens. While
sometimes restricted and sometimes benefited by legislation and government
regulation of nonprofit organizations, nonprofit status colors the nature of
these two groups and gives a distinct type of focus and energy to their role as
a provider of adult and community education.
Table 1. Summary of Adult
Organizations and Programs
|
Indianapolis Urban League
|
Goodwill Industries
|
Locations
|
Indianapolis
|
Nationwide
|
Year it was founded
|
1965
|
1902
|
Missions and goals
|
Provide education, workforce
development, and equal opportunities
|
Provide employment, training and
rehabilitation for people of limited employability, and a source of temporary
assistance for individuals whose resources were depleted.
|
List the Main Prgrams
|
Education & Youth Empowerment
Health & Quality of Life Empowerment
Civic Engagement and Leadership Empowerment
Civil Rights and Racial Justice Empowerment
Empowerment - Information and
Technology,
Workforce Development – Employment
and Skills Training
|
Online job training: GoodProspects
and GCFLearnFree.org/GCFAprendeLibre.org
Career Services for Women,
Immigrants, and Hispanics
Vocational Training
|
How were the programs organized?
|
Programs were organized to give
adults the skills and education needed to improve quality of life and to
shape their community in which they live.
|
Programs were organized to give
adults the opportunity to achieve his or her fullest potential through
education, skills training and the power of work.
|
Goals these organizations wish to
achieve through these programs
|
Through various programs, the goal
of IUL is that adults attain economic self-sufficiently through good jobs,
education, homeownership and wealth accumulation.
|
Through Goodwill programs, adults
can participate in and contribute to all aspects of life.
|
Why were they organized
differently/similarly
|
Tied educational opportunities to
community needs Opening educational opportunities to at-risk populations is a
critical challenge of adult education
|
Legislative legacy of the
Smith-Hughes Act is the Carl D. Perkins Act, which provides funding to the
states for career and technical education 16 Theorems serve as a
philosophical foundation for adult education programs
|
Implications
|
Ongoing projects for
Goodwill and the Indianapolis Urban League include a focus on computer
literacy, access to training and employment for special populations, and
green programs.
|
Goodwill and IUL's
current and planned projects provide an overview of what types of projects
may be of interest to adult education focused nonprofits over the next
several years.
|
References
Bo's Feedback:
Angela , Andrea and Nichole,
This is nice paper! I especially like the following statement:
Targeting efforts toward particular groups is often a condition of certain grants or government funding, and it may be a sign of the direction that legislative interests have taken that nonprofit organizations are rolling out more specialized programs and services for adult learners
As environmental issues become a bigger focus of legislative interest, we may see nonprofit adult education programs branch out into that area more often.
I really like your Comparison!
Suggestions:
1. Tell us how these organizations manage and operate these programs, why they were organized differently, and how the missions and goals of the organizations have impacted the ways these programs are managed and operated.
2. A large portion of your Implications is actually the comparison of two programs and should be moved to Comparisons.
3. Implications: What can we learn from these organizations in terms of what programs to provide, and how to manage and operate these programs to meet the overarching goals and missions of these organizations? How can this study help us understand the nature of adult education.
4. You need to cite ideas from published literature. Ideas from literature will help you conceptualize your ideas. Otherwise, your paper is just a description of the organizations and programs and does not reach to a conceptual level.
5. Add references in your text if the ideas you used in your text are not yours.
6. All the references you listed at the end of your paper should be cited in your text too.
7. Check APA about online information. For example:
GCFLearnFree.org offers 125 tutorials, including more than 1,100 lessons, videos, and interactives, completely free. (Who We Are)
The main goal of this program is for women to make connections to employment opportunities, training programs and resources that support success, financial education and resources to help you reach long-term goals, support services to help you advance in your career, one on one career counseling, grooming and image assistance. (Employment, Training & Education.)
Edgar Helms described the organization as an “industrial program as well as a social services enterprise.” (About us)
--- Check APA about direct citation.
Check your APA about online resources in References.
8. Helms idea was brilliant.
--- Revise the sentence.
Bo
