I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

The organization, Corporate Voices for Working Families, issued Tomorrow’s Workforce: Ready or Not Report: It’s a Choice the Business Community Must Make Now (July 2008) that contends “young people are not prepared with basic workforce skills” – these young’uns do not meet the hiring criteria for the workforce, even after graduating from high school and college, for that matter. “Employers want workers with applied skills, such as professionalism, teamwork, communication and critical thinking all of which are required in a “knowledge based economy,” the report said.

While reading the report, I became alarmed when it said, “This crisis is one that threatens our nation’s ability to compete in a rapidly changing and more competitive global economy. And if left unresolved, it is a crisis that will undercut the standard of living and way of life for our children-and theirs”. After thinking about this profound statement, I became very confused…I kept asking myself why the Education System is not connected to the business community more tightly AND why are we not organizing and demanding changes in the local education systems like we know we are in a crisis?

The report gives a crystal clear interpretation that the current Education system is outdated and broken and gives us the information very loudly. To borrow from the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate” – a profound disconnect between the education and workforce stakeholders that needs fixing.
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A “Shout Out” to some of my favorite web-sites for non-profits…

Grant Resources and Information:

If you have never visited – The Foundation Center, then you have been missing out on a wealth of information and a true friend to non-profits. They will send you a notice, via e-mail every Friday that tells which foundations are soliciting proposals. They have good information for entities that want to become non-profits. The Foundation Center also has information about the management responsibilities of the board of directors.

Grants Alert has daily listings of foundations soliciting proposals and deadlines. They have a wealth of information about fund raising strategies that is very beneficial for those non-profits that may want to have fund raising events.

Grant Wrangler is a grant alert website for educators and teachers. They send out a bi-weekly e-mail to let you know what options for education funds are available.

Fundsnet OnLine Services is a comprehensive site for grant seekers looking for information on financial resources available. Their grant information is categorized by concept and is very user friendly. They also have information on scholarship opportunities.

Financial Literacy Information:

Texas Workforce Commission has a free website called “Reality Check” that takes persons through a budget analysis on what is affordable with the type of occupations one chooses to pursue. It is the coolest tool to add to career classes and summer job training programs – the data is based on Texas occupations and wages but the lesson on budgeting is universal.
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All Performance Measures were not created equal…

During my tenure working with a “workforce board”, I got to know the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) inside and out. This Act was started during Clinton’s second term in 1998 – remember the Job Training Partnership Act? Better known as “JTPA” – WIA replaced that Act.

Anyway, what really surprised me was how little people knew about the WIA programs. WIA has funds for youth and adults that need assistance to find a job, support services like childcare, transportation and training.

After realllllllllllly looking for a job for a certain period of time, and no luck – then it may be possible to get WIA training funds. The training funds are issued to the training providers on your behalf in what’s called Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Here is the catch – it has to be training in an occupation where there is a demand – a job – in the local area.

The local workforce boards are the ones who approve the demand occupation list and the training providers. The training providers are held accountable by data submitted by employers that indicates – get this – job placement! The job placement data for the approved training providers in Texas is kept in a website for everybody to see. The workforce boards are held accountable for the funds – trainee’s social security number does not show up on the quarterly employment reports – the workforce board gets dinged and then the dinging has a political domino effect. Job placement is the ultimate performance measure for success in the WIA training programs.
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Calling All to Financial Literacy!…..

Richard had graduated from high school in 2007; he was a pretty smart guy and got into a state college. He left for his first year in the fall and I did not see him again until the next summer.

“How did it go Richard?” I asked, he said he could not go back to school because he had taken four credit cards he had been offered on the first day of school and had maxed them out. ” On what,” I asked. “Important stuff like pizza, music, electronic stuff… you know the stuff I need to be cool. My parents helped me with my tuition and all my regular budget needs, but I did not have much left to live on, the credit cards were so easy to get and they came with a free t-shirt. The credit card companies are now chasing me, every day they threaten to take me to court. My parents say I have to stop and clear this debt, so I have to work full-time to pay them off and then I can return to school,” he said.

Richard told me this story a short time before the announcement of the failure of the housing market and sub-prime loan crisis. When I asked Richard what kind of interest rate he was paying, that look on his face said it all, this poor soul had no clue, he too had gotten “sub primed”. Because of the lack of credit history payments, he received the highest interest rate and he was now going to pay way more than he had borrowed.
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“Destiny is no matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved“ William Jennings Bryan

During my first month working for Waco Habitat for Humanity, I was asked to participate in the family selection process and provide Spanish translation for a home visit. When families are going through the selection process, part of the process requires some members of the Selection Committee to visit the families in their homes.

Leaving a job where I seldom interacted with people, making a home visit was kind of foreign to my past day-to-day activities. But nonetheless, I went, not knowing what to expect. It took a while to locate the home of the applicant; the house was placed toward the back of a lot. Now, I have lived in Waco, Texas most of my life and I never knew that such living conditions existed in this town. The house was a two-bedroom house and had an alleyway entrance.

Upon entering the home, my eyes had to adjust because the house was extremely dark. The bare bulb that hung off a cord in the kitchen gave little light and moved back and forth which provided an eeriness in the house. The house had several roof leaks and holes were abundant throughout the floor. The kitchen counters were covered with linoleum that was lifting up from all angles. The one thing that was astounding was how the house smelled of cleaning agents. The applicant may have lived in a modest setting but she maintained what little she had with a fierce pride.
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Graduate of Avance becomes Executive Director…

Avance is a program that educates parents with the necessary knowledge of child development and trains them with parenting skills so they can learn how to raise their children in a caring environment. Bereniz Moreno’s story illustrates how a mother is in a position to have tremendous impact on her child-either positively or negatively. Moreno is a living testimony to the program and as the executive director of the Avance-Waco program considers it extremely gratifying to see the positive change that happened in her family repeated in other family households.

“The day the Avance recruiter came to our door and talked my mom into attending the program changed my family’s life,” said Moreno. “My mother was dedicated to our care; however, she would yell and scold us and we felt we were always in trouble, after attending the Avance program, my mom became more affectionate in discipline, more consistent, she would explain why we were disciplined, this in turn made our household peaceful.”

“My dad encouraged mom in the Avance program, he noticed her attitude with us during discipline, and saw how mom nurtured and encouraged us; thereafter, he always supported her decisions when it came to us. For nine months in that first year, my mom, and I would attend the Avance program. While my mom attended her weekly classes, I was cared for in an educational setting. My mom learned basic developmental skills and was trained to monitor our linguistic, social, physical, emotional, and cognitive changes. She also attended a toy-making class that taught her how to make educational toys using everyday household items. Avance has a home-visiting component that follows up to ensure the training is provided in the homes, and parents receive personalized suggestions; I remember how that visiting day at my house was so intense because my mom was so invested in the program.” Read the rest of this entry »