Adult Education Organizations and Programs

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

2013 Goodwill Industries International Annual Report. (2014, November 6). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.goodwill.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Goodwill-Industries-International-2013-Annual-Report.pdf

About. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from https://goodprospects.goodwill.org/about/

About us. (2015) Goodwill Industries Inc. http://www.goodwill.org/about-us/

Employment, Training & Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.ocgoodwill.org/changing-lives/employment-training-and-education/beyond-jobs

Goodwill’s History | Goodwill Industries International, Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from http://www.goodwill.org/about-us/goodwills-history/

Goodwill job training programs and get help finding a job. (2015) http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/goodwill_job_training_programs.html

Indianapolis Urban League. (2010) http://www.indplsul.org/

Mission Statement. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from http://www.indplsul.org/

National Urban League, Inc. consolidated financial statements and supplementary information for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 with report of independent auditors. (2014) http://nul.iamempowered.com/sites/nul.iamempowered.com/files/attachments/2013%20Audited%20Financials.pdf

Programs and services offered by Goodwill. (2015) Goodwill Industries Inc. http://www.goodwill.org/about-us/programs-and-services-offered-by-goodwill/

Ready4Work - Operation New Hope. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://operationnewhope.org/ready4work/

Vocational Training. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.ocgoodwill.org/changing-lives/vocational-training

Who We Are. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.gcflearnfree.org/aboutus/who-we-are

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