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.Barton, Stephanie LangServing Adult Learneri. Collabórative.ApproacheS.inFive ComMunities.

' National Inst. for Work and Learning, Washington;D.C.Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, Mich.82 ,

63p.Reporis - Descriptive (141)

N7.01 Plus Postage: PC Not Available frbm,EDRS. .

Access to Education; Aduat Education; !AdultPrograms; Adult StUderits; ArtiCulation (Education);Case Studies; Community Cooperation; *CoMmunityCoordination;'*Educational Coopkration; *EducationWork Relationship; Orgdmizational Objectives; ProgramContent; program Descriptions; Program' Development;Program Effectivendss;., *Progrgni Implementation ,

California (Oakland); Massachusetts (Worcester);Oregon (Portland); South Carolina (Charleston); South-Dakota .(Sioux Falls); *Work EdUcation Councils

ABSTRACTThii volume contains descriptionsof five community-

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work education councils that have broadenea their agendas from'a' focus on ToUth'issues to include serving' adult learners by improving

adults'- access to education and training.and by iMproving thearticulation between work and learning institutions that serve adultsin the communityv Included in the,volume are chse studies of the

.following.work education councils: The Charleston Trident WorkEducation Council in Charleston, South Carolina;ithe Worcester AreaCareer Educafion'Consortium in Worcester,.Massachusetts; the Sioux)Falls Area Community Education Work Council in,Sioux Falls, SouthDakota;'the Community Careers 4ounci1 of Oakland, California; and theGreater Portland Work Education Council in Portlang, Oregon: Eachcase study.contains a history ofAthe council that.touches upon,the_tollowing topics: the.program setting', project objectives,majOr .

project attivities,,outcomes of the project, and future plans..(MN)

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* ReprOductions iuppliea. bY EDRS are thetbest that Can be.made *

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SERVINGADULT

fo LEARNERScn Collaborative Approaches.

.1..0 inPive CommuniiibyStephanie Lang Barton

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Ann C. Baker, Project Director -

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONNATIONAL tNSTITUTE OF EOUCATION

EOJCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

This document has been reproduced asreceived from the person or organization' ,

originating it '

Minor changes have been made to improvereproduction quality

Poiiits of ,.;iew Or opinions stated in-this dOCt-'1-

men t do not necessarity represent official NIE.position or policy

Robert J. Sakakeeny, Project DirectorWorcester, Massachusetts

'Victor Pavlenko, Project DirectorSioux Falls, South Dakota

Frankie M. Arrington, Project DirectorOakland, California

,Carol Stone, Project DirectorPortland, Oregon

Richard A. Lingerer, Project DirectorNational Institute for, Work and Dearning

"PERMISSIOA TOREPRODUCE THISMATERIAL IN ,MICROFICHE ONLYHAS BEEN GRANTED BY

froTO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

The National Institutefor Work and Learning

The National Institute for Work and Learn-ing was established in 1971 by a group ofcorporate And academic leaders for thestated puipose of "helping. to better,meetthe nation's human resource needs." TheInstitute's agenda is to improve ihe rela-tionships between institutions of work andof learning, to facilitate transitions be-tween school and work, fOr youth and.be-tween work and school':for adults, and tobetter relate the economy's skill.needs totheir supply. ,

The means to these ends have taken avariety/ of forms during the' last decade, in-cluding dction experiments and pilot pro-grams, case studies of successful practices,

licy studies in which the results of re-search have been synthesized for action'uses, creating information networks, andconducting rese'arch when that Was fonnd to

'be a necessary step before action... , While the means vary, a common threadruns through all:Institute undertakings:the pursuit of collabor'ative efforts aitiongemployers, eaucators, unions, service orga-nilations, and governMent, to. get work-learning- problems resolved, to stimulateprivate sector initiatives;`and to help thicollaborative approach operate at the locallevel.

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This publication reports on a project Made possible by agrant from the W. K. Kellogg FoundatiOn.. , .

De Signed by Design Communication, Inc.

© 1982National Institute for Work and Learning

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Contents--

Page

Foreword 7

ACknowledgthents 8

Comm Unity Collaboration for Adult Learners 9

The Charleston Project, Charleston, So.uth Carolina 12

The Worcester Project, Worcester, Massachusetts. 21

The Sioux Falls Project, Sioux Falls, South Daicota

The Oakland.Project, Oakland, California ..... 40.

The Portland Project, Portland, Oreg 50

'What Hact We Learned? 59

Net,t ,Steps 63

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Foreword

In 1976, the National ,Institute for Work and Learning(NIWL) organized 21 local education-work councils, tosmooth the transition from; school to work for young people.After these councils became experienced, it was our objectiveto encourage them to expand their agendas to include help-ing adults resume their _education, for the time has longpassed when education at the beginning of life is sufficient ina society and economy undergoing rapid.change.

Financial support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation hasenabled NIWL and five collaborative councils to work on anadult learning agenda from the fall of 1980 to the fall of 1982.We very much appreciate that financial suppo'it, and, thecontinuing personal interest of Arlon Elser from the KelloggFoundation.

The project has been led hy Richard -Lingerer at NIWL. Thework in the five communities has been directed by And ,

Baker in Charleston, South Carolina; Bob Sakakeeny inWorcester,, Massachusetts; Vic Pavlenkp in Sioux Falls,South Dakota; Frankie Arrington in Oakland, California;and Carol Stone in Portland, Oregon. The quality of theefforts in the e communities has strengthened our convic-tion that a co laborative effort at the local level among em-ployers, educ ors, unions, and local government can signifi-cantly igiprove the relationship between work and learning,with the result of enhancing lives at the same time that weimprove skills of the workfor in the interest of the economyas a whole.

It is' our hope that the experience of these five councils, as.herein described; will encourage other communities to un-dertake similar efforts and will help them in doing so.

Paul E. Barton -

Executive Vice PresidentNational Institute for Work and Learning

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Acknowledgments4

In wri ng this publication, I have drawn heavily on thereports 4f the five lobaltroject directors: Ann Baker, BobSakakeeny, Vic Pavlenko, Frankie Arrington, and CarolStone. Many of theiwords herein are theirs,'for which I thankthem. Rich Ungerer, Project Director at the Institute, hasprovided overall guidance and encouragement.

Stephanie Lang Barton'September 1982

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Communityationfor Adult Learners

In the fall of 1980, the National Institute for Work- andLearning received a two-year grant from the W. K. KelloggFoundation to help kve community work-edudation councilsbroaden their agendas frorn a focus on youth issues to in-clude serving adult learners by improving adults' access toeducation and training and impreking the articulation be-tween work and learning institutions serying adults in theircoinmunities. .

The Institute had been working for several yeais with 30collaborative worlt-education councils that bring together

.employers,.educators, union leaders, government represent-atives, and representatives of locaLservice agencies ti? assistyoung people in their corymunities who are in education-work transition§. Most of these councils do not run programsthemselves, but rather bring together existing educationand work institutions to work jointly on youth transitionissugs, with the council developing and providing_informa-tiorridn the community's needs and resources and serving as acoordinating and catalytic agent..

Ta amount of rnoney for each council's expansion to devel-op an adult agenda has been relatively small$10,000 ayear for two yearsprimarily to support council staff timefor the project. Additional monies haVe suppOrted Institutestaff time to identify the councils for participation, to providethem with ongoing .a..sistance in their agenda development,and to bring the five -N)uncil dfrectors together periodicallyto share information and ideas about their projects. Thissmall amount of financial assistance plus the Institute'stechnical assistance has had a significant impact on howadult education and training are perceived, coordinated, anddelivered-in these five communities. .

The five participating councils/the Trident Work-Educa-tion Co,uncil in Charleston,Soufh Carolina; the WorcesterArea Career Education Consortium in Worcestet, Massachu-setts; the Sioux Falls Area Education-Work Council in SiouxFalls, South Dakota; the Community Careers Council inOakland, California; and the Greatef Portland Work-Educa-tion Council infPortland, Oregon, were selected from among

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12 candidates, based on their prOpoSals for carrying out thebasic project goals and after local site visits by,Institute staffto.assess community commitment to the iiroject. Tliey begantheir projects in the Spring of 1981.

Three primary goals were established for. all of thecouncils:

TO assess the needs of adult learners and the ,eXistingeducational resources in the rommunity;,

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To develo-p a long-range agenda to meet these needs and touse available resources effectively,. and ,

To take initial steps toward agenda implementation.

These goals were based on the Institute's perceptions thatmore and mores adults are in need of education and trainingand`ttat higher edUcation systems are becoming more flexi-ble in order to nieet these needs, but that there is little. ,

coordination of existing and potential resources in commu--nities fo expand on and take advantage of then develop-ments. Each commit-ay sector represented in themember-ship of work-education councils--education institutions,employers, unions, governmeni, and voluntary and non=profit community serviceliiktitutiOnshas significant re-sources devoted to education and training needs of adults.Working entirely separately, as is their usual tendertcy, theyhave much potential for committing additional resources toexpand service delivery and programming in the 1980s, But,working together, there is infinitely greater prospect of in-creasing opportunities and providing wider access to them toadult learners.

Within the framework of the project's three priMary goals,each council was to determine its own priorities, caPabilities,assessment methods, and program activities. The most'sig-nifican t difference among the projects is their choice of whichsegment Of the adult population to serve. Several of thecouncils proposed to.serve a specific segment in their initialproposals; others concluded after an assessment that a par-ticular group of adults waa in considerably greater need ofcoordinated services than were others.

The Charleston Council is focusing its project on the pen-

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insular City of Charleston, and' moie specifically on the". deteriorating Rast Side where there is an exciting revitaliza-, tion project beginning. In Worcester, the project is serving

women who need rurther education, training, and gypor7tive services in order to enter or re-enter work or to changecareers. In Sioux FallS; South Dakota, the project is servingyoung adult Indians, 'and in Oakland, California, Indochi-nese refugees. The Portland Coiincil in Oregon is working toassess oppor tunities available to middle-aged and olderadults and tO facilitate new linkages among the public andPrivate institutions that provide s9kvices. These choiceshaye, of course, created large differences among the projects,thus allowing the project as a whole to provide a broad scope

N:\ of experience for .other communities fo draw upon.Thijs publication describes in detail the development of the

Adult Learners Project in each of the five communitieS anddiscusse4mon threads in their experiences. Specificexamples of hkv collaborative problem-solving and ,collab:orative action can begin to remove barriers to adult learningare presented in the following chapters.

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Portland Cornratinity College

The CharleitonProjectCharleston, South Carolina

The survey is providing hard-to-gather, credible informationabout adults' needs, enabling informed decision4 for install:tional ,change. The information gencirated is affecting plansfor educational programs in terms of course content, location,and times offered.

The Setting ' V

The Charleston Trident Work-EducatIon Council was organ-ized in 1976 to serve a three-county area. The Council hasdex oped formation base on local youth employmentand has rovi ed technical assistance to local school advi-sory councils. In 1977, the Council began a Summer Work-Education Program for educafors, through which about 30educators work in local ,businesses and industries to givetWm a more accurate view of occupations to share with theirstudents. The'Council has also worked with local_postsecond-4ry institutions to better train educators in career, awarenessand general 'education skills. Those collaborative effortshave been so successful that. the Council was eager in 1981 tobroaden its agenda to include other adult initiatives.

This is a particularly opportune time tO begin collabora-. tive planning for adult education and training in Charleston.

The area is enjoying vigorous growth due to numerous man-ufacturing plant openings and a growing base of trade en-couraged by an international port facility. The city has aprogressive administration concerned with the human ancl

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business needs of this flouri'shing community.The higher education community is sensitive to the needs

of adults, and the Technical College System in South Car-/Olina iiunasually-responsive to the training needs of indus-try. The College of, Charleston and The Citadel both haverecently appointed'hew deans of continuing education whohave brought, new interest in adult learning to the HigherEducation Consortium'(both deans are active in the AdultLearners Project). And an Educational Opportunity Centeropened in January of 1980. with a Community Component to

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assist adults who want to continue or complete high school orgo to postsecondary education, and a Postsecondary Compo-nent that' provides cOunseling, tutoring, motivational ac-tivities, and seminars.

In addition; in early 1981, the city contracted, with CityVenture Corporation to undertake a holistic job creation andcommunity revitalization strategy on, the East Side ofCharleston, a deteriorating neighborhood with an inade-quate educational bae, limited employment opportunities,and few support.serv ices for. a primarily minority popula-`tion. The city has allocated $100,000.of its Urban Develop-ment Block Grant to the prpgram and the State PrivateIndustry Council has ,added another $100,000. City Ven-ture's strategy involves, economicindustrial development,job creation, education and training, ahd §'Upport services.

As part otCity Venture's activities, Control Data Corpora-tion has inyested $3.5 million to renovate the old AmericanTobacco Warehouse which is adjacent to the East Side Com-

.- rriunity Center and will house Control Data's tUsiness andT%hnology Center and FAIR BREAK " CENTER. The Busi-ness and Technoroky Center will provide office and lightmanufadturing space for small businesses and roYe servicesto provide management and financial assistance. The focusat the Center and throughout tfie,East Side is on the creationand expansion of small businesses that result in laba inten-sive employment.

To prepare East Side residents for the newly created jobs,City Venture will esiablish a FAIR BREAK CENTER, aControl Data program that aims to break down the barriersto employment, lirovide employment prieparation training,and place participants in permanent jobs.

The Trident Work-EdUcation Council is using the AdultLearners Project to bring these new elements in Charlestontoiether with established institutions anti organizations, tod'Irelop a base of inforrhation about adult education andtraining needs and resources, and Co begin to work collab-oratively to remove barriers adults face when seeking fur-ther' education' and 'tra ining. 10,

The -first step in the project was to assemble an AdultInitiative Task Force. The Task Force includes representa-tives of employers, the institutions, in the Higher EducationConsortium, the Educational Opportunity Center, City Ven-ture Coiporation, the City of Charleston, the Charleston

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County School District, and the Committee on Better RacialAssurahce. Their initial responsibility waS to identify a tar-,get.area to be served by the project.

The Thsk Force began early 'exploring ith bity VentureCorporation possible areas of 'Cooperation, with the rIesultthat the Councildecided to target the Adult Learnets Project

..:in.,the peninsular City of Charleston, with PartiCUlar focuson the East Side in'the City Venture project area. The penin-sular city includes- all socioeconcimic groups and has a full'range , of urban resourCeg and needs the East Side is anethriomically disadvantaged .and depressed neighoborhOod.

PrOject Objectives

The Task Force set sik objectives for the projed:

.To identify and compile a listing Of all-existing educationalresources within the peninsular City of Charleston and allregional educational resources which could be potentiallyavailable to peninsular city residents; -

,To 'conduct a telephone survey of 3 peninsular city resi-dents and personal interviews with 200 East Side resi-dents in order to identify adult learner needs and barriersto meeting those needs;

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To analyze the data collected and organize it into types ofeducational and training opportunities needed and, to dis-tribute the data to institutions, the City, City Venture Corpo-ration, community-based organizations, and churches thatserve peninsular residents;

-11, To identify and analyie barriers preventing "adults from"obtaining education and training;

rib develop a two-phase agenda for the Work-Educationbouncil to stimulate new, expanded, 'or mobile lebarningprograms; to expand access, to existing educational exp, ri-

4. ences; to penetrate major barriers; and to,complementCity Ventare project (the first phase will concentrate onthe crosssectiox of the peninsular population; the secondpha'se will focus specifically on the East Side and coordina-tion.with the City VentureProject); and

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To prioritize agenda items and begin on the most.riticalneeds and/or achievable elements.

Project Activities

During the spring of 1981, the Council began identifyingkovernment entities, educational institutions, and othersinvolved in research or delivery of services to adults. Inadaitionthe business community was evaluated to identifypotential education and training resources that could bemade more generally available to the adult population.

Early in the project, the Higher Education Consortiumpreparea a proposal in collaboration with 'the Council andthe Educational Opportunity Center for funding from TitleI-B of the Higher,Education Act, part of which would suppothe preparation and printing of a catalogue of edu,cation äñdtraining resourcesin the tri-county arta. After review of thepreliminary proposal, the Consortium was invited to pre-pare a final, full proposal in May. Early in June, funds for theTitle I-B program were eliminated by Congress.- At thiswriting, the. Council has no other resources to prepare aformal catalogue, but is hoping to get the information col-lected about local resources to community leaders, serviceagency personnel, churches, and schools in the peninsularcity and request their assistance in disseminating the infor-mation to their members and clients and to the neighbor-

. hood.Also ir the early spring, the Director for Research and

Planning at Trident TechnicallCollege was designing thesurveys of peninsular and East Side residents. The surveyquestions were designed to elicit information useful to edu-cation and training institutions and other service providersand went through several reviews by Task Force members,City Venture's headquarters in Minneapolis, the Depart-ment of Urban Affairs and Metropolitan Studies at the Colalege of Charleston, and the Director of Raearch.at the Na-

,. tional Institute for Work and Learning.The telephone suryey of 281 adults in the peninsular city

was conducted during the late summer on three evenings bytrained volunteer phone interviewers. Individuals wereasked if and where they had taken courses during the pastyear, if and where they plahned to take courses in the future,and what barriers they had faced or expected to face if they

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wanted )0 take cOrses. The interviews were also used tocollect rrames of,individuals wanting educational,infOrma-tion. 'Those namesA were later sent on to the appropriateinstitutions for response.

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The same questions were asked of 200 East Side residentsand in addition, they were asked about barriers they con-fronted when seeking employment or better jobs. Because ofthe difficulty of reaching these residents and Of getting accu-rate information, the interviews were conducteA on site. An

;East Side resident who has been hired by the city to act asliaison between thecity and City Venture Corporation was

loaned to the Council to assist in plarming the personal-interviews. She identified 22 East Side resident volunteers

-,who could conduct the interviews.An. agenda for action is developing out of he survey re-

sults. Even before the data were Completely analyzed, someneeds were clearly apparent and.work began immediatelytoaddress those needs. . - ;

An early indication from the raw data was that Jack ofcounseling' services is a vital missing \link 'between theunemployed and underemployed ori the East Side and thejobs that may be created in the next few years. 'City Ven-ture's FAIR BREAK CENTER has the potential for fillinthis gap and for providing basic skills education, but be-cause of CETA cutbacks, funding was lost for supportingcounselors at the CENTER. The FAIR BREAK CENTERoffers participants a self-paced, individualized programusing computer-based educational systems to upgradebasic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics; part-time jobs; and counseling and referral support. The coun-seling component, which involves both 'professional andpeer Counselors, is vital to the program to help partici-pants break. doWn barriers tO employment caused by lowself-esteem, personal problems, and lack of knowledgeabout career planning .and job search techniques.

The Charleston County School District?, which has arepresentative on the AdUlt Initiative Task Force, alertedthe Council that state adult education monies were avail-able to the School District and suggested that the Councilapply to the state to use those funds to support counselorsat the FAIR BREAK CENTER. At this writing, the Coun-cil is seeking authorization to use the funds to support

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several, professional counselors and one peer counselor.The Council plans to train additional peer cbunselors,drawn from East Side residents who volunteered to con-.duct interviews, after the CENTER has a base of profes-sional counselors. In addition, there is tir possibility thata cornmunity counselor from theEducatianal OpportunityCenter will be Placed at the FAIR BREAK CENTER.

Control Data Corporation '

Another response to the needs indicated by the data col-lected was the preparation ,by the Council,, the HigherEducation Consortium, City Venture Corporation, and theNational Institute for Work and Learning'of a proposal,tothe Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.This project will respond to the needs for counseling, re-medial work in basic skills, and work motivation ae-

% tivities, and will complement the City Venture project.Briefly, the project Will use a computer gameroorn andskills center located in the FAIR BREAK CENTER aS anentry point into a multi-faceted skill and career develop-ment program leading to increased opportunities for EastSide residents to consider careers in computer technology.

When East Side residents were asked about the type ofeducation they would most like to get, the most frequent'response was basic skills; an aStonishing 49 percent indi-

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cated they would like to take courses at Trident TechpicalCollege in the near future. This need alerted the TechnicalCollege to the fact that East Side residents provided a largepool of potential students. But another survey finding indi- .cated that lack of transportation is a major barrier for EastSide residents, and Trident Tech is 20 miles from.-the EastSide, with no public transportation available. The Techni-cal College is taking several approaches fo eliminatingthis barrier; setting up bus service to the campus `withseveral stops in the East Side and along the 20-mile route,and exploring ways to bring classes and equipment into theneighborhood, perhaps by buying a recently closed school,or More likely by sharing rented space with social serviceagencies.

Another barrier toalking courses appears to be discomfortwith the unfamiliar college campus atmosphere. In orderto eliminate this barrier and to meet the need for basicskills education, the Dean of_Continuing Education at theCollege of Charleston is considering offering short, compe-tency-based courses off-site,,at an East Side high school ora neighborhood center.

The projects survey has already given the-CharlestonCouncil the knowledge base to begin acting as a catalyst toencourage collaborative problem resolution. And throughthe Task Force, various members are able to coordinate theirresources. .

Furthei analysis of the survey data has led the Council toadd a couple of new items to their agenda: .

Preparation of profi les of types of people who might providea student population for ailditional educational oppor-tudlities if they were offered; and

Distribution to all Charleston institutions of samples ofdetailed information that could be made available to themby computer if it is Useful for their planning purposes. Forexample, the project could provide a listing of whatkinds ofcourses employed women plan to take or the major harriersthey pre encountering.

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Outcomes. -

, Although the project is not yet completed, the CharlestonCouncil can already see some short-term outcomes:

The survey process provided information to, individualswho were interviewed, if they wanted it, regarding programsand resources currently available in the community.

The survey is providing hard-to-gather, credible informa-tion about clients' needs to resource providers to facilitateinformed decisions for change.

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The information generated is affecting institutional plansfor educational programs in terms of proportion of credit/noncredit courses offered and location, time, and content ofcourses and pFgrams offered.

The project is providing a stimulus for cliange throughincreased flow of information. .

Resource providers are receiving assistance and, supportfrom the National Institute for Work and Learning and theWork-Edueat 'on Council in the form of eer counselor

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training, data analysis assistance and interpretation, andresource identification. .

,An unanticipabted outcoMe is the effectiveness of collabora-tion in the inner city ,community on the East Side and theemergence of residents who served as an inyaluable re-source in the survey and who can continue to be tapped inthe future as a community resource.

** The project is expanding the process of collaborationamong the five Charleston Higher Education Consortiuminkitutions, the Educational Opportunity Center, theCharleltop County School District, City Venture Corpora-tion, and. the Work-Education Council. This collaborationhas.brottght together the Educational Opportunity Centerand City Venture Corporation, providing .City Venturewith a new resource to tap for counselors at the FAIRBREAK CENTER, and has facil itated a commitment fromthe County School District of funds for counselors there,.

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Jricreased collaboration is also facilitating indre coopera-Aion among instiltutions on the Task Force, resulting in.4 . ,sharing of resources such as space, staff expertise, courseofferings, scheduling, and advertising, and a lsci is bringingcommunity-based organizations and churches togetherwith resource providers to mobilize and invigorate the useof volunteers in response to clients' needs.

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The Future ,`A.

The Charleston Council is looking forward to institutionaliz-ing the spirit of cooperation', mutual benefit, and openness toflexibility' among resource providers that lias been stimu-.lated by the Adult Learners Project, and to iicreasing aware-ness of overlapping self-interests through ersonal contactsand information dissemination. Some hoped-for program ex-

, tensions include strengthening and eXpanding programs foradult learners; institutionalizing, perhaps throUgh the Edu-cational Opportunity Center, grass roots distribution of in-formation abput the availability of learning opportunitiesand supporti:services; exploring the possibility of a skillscenter being located on the East Side; institutionalizMg the.expanded volunteer .effort; and improving support servicedelivery systems, especiallY child care, tutoringrand coun-seling services, through City Venture's efforts and the use ofvolunteers'.,

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The Worcester Project I

Worcester, Massachusetts

The Adult Learners Project is sewing together a patchworkquilt of extsting resources and resource providers so that,when a woman calls any one provider she can get a descrip-tion of the support system being created to provide her with arange of needed services.

The Setting

With a population of about 162,000, Worcester is a blue collar"Working class" community. Its population includes 61 'dif-fer t and closely knit ethnic groups.

Worcester's traditional manufacturing base has been sur-passed by a growing service sector which has become theatea's primary employer. There are half a dozen large indus-trial employers, and major non-manufacturing employersinclude two large insurance companies and three utilities.There is an expanding health system providing job oppor-tunities, and local government employment is significant.-Inaddition, "high tech" industries are rapidly moving into thearea surrounding Worcester.

A piece of recent history in Massachusetts will undoubted-ly affect Worcester in ways that can't yet be fully assessed. Inthe November 1980 election, Massachusetts voters passedProposition 21/2; a property tax-cutting measure that willdramatically reduce revenues available to older cities suchas Worcester. Many public education institutions and com-munity service agencies that have depended on tar revennesfor some of their st;Port are having to cut back Staff andeservices. .

When the Worcester Area Career,Education Consortiumwas first formed in 1975,--with the rent of brinking institu-tions .15f educatik, training, and emplliyment together tOfocus on the problems youth were having making the transi'-tion from education to work, its initial actiility 'was to eon-duct an in-depth analysis of education, training, and emploY-ment in' the Worcester area.

One intrigning item came to light through this analysis:the Worcester area, for a variety of reasons, was fast ap-

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proaching a, time when it would suffer sevete shortages ofqualified workers. If it-were not for the trernendous influx ofwomen into the local labor force, this shortage of 'workerswould have occurred a decade ago. Although the nation as awhole NGs experiencing a similar influx of women into thelabor foNe, the trend was much stronger in the Worcesterarea j.a.fi in the rest of the country.

In 1978, the Consortium commissioned a study of workingwomen in the area, whiCh revealed that while thelabor forceparticipation rate for women in the area was quite high(projected at 70 percent for fiscal 1981 for women 20 to 65years .old), thevast majority of women were stuck in entrylevel positions with no chance for advancement. The ,surveyalso identified a number of barriers to advancement, chiefamong them the lack of information as to where to go forsupport or assistance with the problems encountered whenmoving into or up through the workplace,

, At the invitation of the Regional Office of the Departmentof Labor's Women's Bureau, the Consortium and several localCETA and agency staffs met in, 1979 to begin mapping aprogrammatic response to the need for providing more ser-vicPs tawomermishing to enter the labor force or wishing toupgrade their current position. All involved were Appalled tolearn how few svices existed specifically for women, andthat no one really knew what services were needed: Thisgroup began working on a basic needs assessment andformed the Women's Strategy Group.. During the next year,membership in the proup expanded from a core group of six(which includea A representative o( the Consortium) to over

profeSsitnal women representing institutions of educa-tion, training, and employment.

The Women's Strategy Group found that the ,greaterWorcester area liad a corriprehenslye list of-education, train-ing, and serviCe resources,..including several "manpower" °training programs, ten colleges and universities, and a longlist of relatively sophisticated social Service deliverers. Yetprofessionals within this "system" experienced daily frus-tration when referring women to institutions for neededsupport services. The support necessary l'or vomen whowished to make some form of transition existed, at beSt, onlyori paper.

The Worcester Area Careei Education Consortium de-Tided to use the Adult Learners Project to continue and

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formalize the assessment of services needed and availableand td identify activities that will increase and improve thesupport system and referral process for women. While thereis a range of types of "transitions" women are making andneed assistance in making, the focus- of the project ,is onwomen in transition from the home to Work, or in transitionfrom an entry level position to one that has a career ladder.'

The underlying thesis of tte Worcester project is that theneed for better education and training services for adultwomen is obvious, and that the tendency is to rush to fill thatclearly definable need without considering the barrierswomen face before they can take advantage of a resource. Theoverriding issue is not just to identify specific needs of wom-en, but to identify the package of necessary servides, thesequence of.services,, and the, organizations that need. tqenter the delivery system at different times, toprovide theservices. Before a woman can become.a learner in order toenter the WorkfOrce or upgrade her position in the workforce,sbe must have some basic needs met, such as financial assist-ance and child care; she must have access to information andreferral services to help her make decisions; and she must-have access to education and training.

Project Objectives

,In order to -learn what services were currently available and'lwhat services were needed to help women overcome bafriers

o education aria emPloymerit, the Consortium developed thefsollowing specific objectives:

To define the needs of adult women in thef area, and toprovide a structure for a comniunity-wide institutionalresponse to the needs of women;

To establish a net'work of individuals witliin 'a range ofeducation, service, training, and emplOrnent institutionswhich are currently capable of meeting the identified

. needs;

To coordinate the development of a centralized' resourceand referral network to provide a comprehensive and sup-portive delivery system of services to adult women in thearea;

9 23

To inform, through the Consortium, a larger number ofindividuals and institutions of the social and economicbenefits of providing these services to adult women in thearea, awl ihclude these other individuals and institutionsin the delivery system.

The Consortium staff iS working closely with the Women'sStrategy,, Group, which has identified five "readiness" stages,of support services women need. The Group is structuredwith ohe task force to work oh each of these areas of need.These five readiness stages provided the categories of infor-mation sought in the project's initial inventory of servicesavailable and of unmet needs:

1. Basic needs, such as financial assistance, day care, orhealth- care; 4

f2. Education, from opportunities to complete high school to

post-graduate studies;

3: Tilaining, including classroom settings, on-the-job train-L,ing, and apprentjceship programs; - .-

4. Employment, including the ,coordination of hirniation and improving the status of working wo

5. Special interest/support groups ihat could beother groups to support the objectives of theStrategy Group.

infor-; and

inked toomen's

Project Activities

The firgt step.in the Adult Learners Project was to send ttsurvey questionnaire to education institutions and agencieS;volunteer membership organizations; agencies that supplybasic needs such as mental health counseling, temporaryshelter, information,and referral, and day care; and publicemployment and training institutions. The questionnaireasked each of these institutiOns and agencies what servicesthey provided in each of the five categories. .

The survey results led the Consortium and the Women's°Strategy Group to take action on several fronts: the fullreport and recommendations for follow-up were sent to all

-

, 24

,

I -I

,

the agencies surveyed, and a summary was sent to a muchlarger list; an immediate step was taken tO work on theobviously- desperate need for child care before women couldconsider further education or employment; and plans weremade to compile the resulting information on available ser-viZes into a resource directory.

The survey summary was sent to agencies in social service,education, and trainingland to employers, with recommen-dations for an agenda for action and naming the Women'sStrategy Group as facilitator for individuals and agentieswho had relevant informatLon or were interested in pursuing

'the agenda rebommendations.

The primary recommendations were as follows:

That a coordinated iriformation and referral systemproviding education and job-related information be pro-.moted among women in Worcester and throughout ,thesystem of agencies and institutions that participated inthe survey;

. . .

The publication of two documen ts that woad facilitatenetworking and information sharing: a "Women's YellowPages" and a catalogue of all training programs;

That flex-time and shared job options be increased to ac-comModate the lack of child care facilities and to encour-age increased preparation for entry into the labor force;

That greater effOrts be made by employers, counselors, andemployment and training specialists to promote oppor-tunities for education, training, and career planning forwomen, with a special emphasis on non-traditional ai.eas;

A coordinated city-wide effort for increasing day care thatinvolves area employers, day care providers, service agen-'cies, and parents; and

That city departments and appropriate agencies take ac-tioto assist women with housing and transportationneeds that keep many women in the community at a sur-vival level. .

, 25

'. The Consortium and the Women's Strategy GroUp wereprepared to take the lead in coordinating activities.to re-spond to the recommendations and, in the case of developingan information base for women from the survey results, to dothe work themselves.

The survey had indicated that the major barrier facingwomen was t ck o low-cost, conveniently located daycare faciliti . Day care roviders reported that all available

. slots were 11, and th they had long waiting lists. Theyialsooted t at recent ate and federal budget decisions will

uc the numb of filnded slots for children of low-incomenear future, forcing many to leave Work,

Consortium sta'ff was,alerted to a recently enactede in the tax code, making it easier for emPloyers today care as an employee benefit and sent a bulletin

scr.bing this change to several hundred employers. Sincethen, the City Manager's Task Force on the Status of Womenin Worcester has taken on the task of meeting with agenciesand companies to further inform them of both the need for

. child care and possible remedies. One local company hassince decided to start an on-site day care operation.

In order to compile the information' developed from theagency survey, the Women's Strategy Group hired a part-time Resource Coordinator to rework the survey informa-tion, check back with the agencies surveyed for accuracy ofthe information, send the survey again to agencies thatdidn't respond the first time, and put the information into aWomen's Resource Directory. At this writing, the Directoryhas been placed in four area locations: the United Way's"First Call," ,a referral hot-line; the YWCA's "Why Not?"program, a career counseling program for women; the Dis-placed Homemakers Program; and the WomenS Bookstore.The Resource Coordinator will update and add to the infor-mation and will keep the Directory current. The ResourceCoordinator is working at the YWCA and her salary iscurrently being paid from the Kellogg grant. Tlie Y Direc-tor's budget request for next year includes monies to con-tinue'the position at the 's expense.

In order for the Directory to include all education andtraining opportunities, the Women's Strategy Group decidedto survey area employers, who were'not reached through theearlier agency survey. EmployerS were asked what types oftraining programs they are involved in, including those op-

26

,

eraed in-house and those'sponsered by other organizations,their present and future employment and training needs;,their opinions, comments, and suggestions for preparingwomen to successfully enter the labor market; and, what s.

recruiting methods they haa found successful. The Consor-tium has, as with the previous survey, dissemi dated the fallreport, and ad&d the information tb the Resource Directory.In addition, each company was asked to "post" job openingsthrough the project, the survey found employers generallyreceptive to hiring women and willing to list openings in theDirectories at each of the four sites.

5-

Lm Ormondroyd

c, ,Outcomes.

The niost visible imrriediate otitcome of the project is th'tT, Resourte Directory which is now available for women to

refer to at four locations in Worcester.L. V e

Because the information gleaned from the,survey has beenwidely distr4ted, resource'providers now have a referralnetwork, for use by the providerg and their clients.

.Another immediate outcome of the project is the sewingtogether of a patchwork quilt of existing resourCes andresource providers so that when a woman initiates a call to

27

any one proyider she can gain a description of the supportsystem being created to provide her with a range of neededservices.

_An unanticipated outcome is. the effect the project has hadon the Women's Strategy Group. The Group was created bystaff and membeis from the Consortium and several edu-cation and training institution's before the start of theproject. Although the members of the Group developed atask agenda which eventually became the objectives of theproject; on balance the Group was offen more a supportgroup for the individual worrien members than a task/goaloriented group. The development of the proposal and theimplementation of the Adult Learners Project led to majorchanges In the composition and purpose bf the Group. The

IV Women's Strategy Group has now evolved into a "collabora-tive body" whose members have focused on providing ser-vices to an audience larger than themselves. file Group'smember institutions have grown to 50, and -there are anadditional 33 individual members. Many of the membersare now also part of the Women's Network, which wascreated specifically to provide support for individual (pro-fessional) menThers.

4

411 An indirect outcome of the survey and the joint work on theproject was the agreement between two Women's StrategyGroup membersClark University and the YWCAtoconduct management level courses and eminars for worn-.en at the YWCA,In addition, the Group mid the Consor-tium are working-with the Worcester Area Chamber ofCommerce on the, development of a pilot seminar specifi-cally for wven entering or in management positions.

For the Consatium, collaboration has been extended intwo ways: First, the Consortium was created to providesupport to those institutions involved ii-Preparing youthfor the transition from education to work. Through theAdult Learners Project, the collaborative process has beenextended to include adult women in transition. Second, theterm "collaborative body" was initially used to describeonly the official membership of the Consortium. Work onthis 'Project provided one means for the Consortium's ex-tending the concept of a collaborative body to include dif-

,

ferent clusters of institutional representatives coming to-fgether to deal with short-term or long-term education andwork issues. ,

The Future

The Worcester Area Career Education Consortium's concernwith the education and emploYment problems of womenbegan before the Kellogg Adult Learners Project; the projectgave the Consortium the resources to go forward with anagenda for keginning to solve some of those problems. TheConsortium took the initial lead in forming and supportingthe Women's Strategy Group, but no longer sees a need forthis "senior" role. The Strategy Group's Board has created aself-sufficient organization that is now independently recog-nized as a viable force. The Consortium can now become oneof a large number ofmember organizations and institutions.

,

29

The Sioux Falls ProjectSioux Falls, South Dakota

The propoied training prograni is expected to pla-ce youngIndian adults in the labor market in Sioux Falls, to establishfinancial stability for the families of the people placed throughthe program, to demonstrate the capacity of Indian people tomaintain long-term employment, and to demonstrate thepotential of collaboration to solve d difficult human and socialproblem..

The Setting,

The Sioux Falls' Area Community 'Education-Wcirk Councilwas organized in 1977 and serves the Sioux Falls Metro-politan Area and 18 rFal counties. The Council has con-ducted an analysis of youth transition problems, coordinated

,a shadow work-eXperience program and a speakers bureau,and prepared a slide tape presentation olleP`Why Work?"on attitudes about work. Although the Council preyiouslyserved only youth, it has long been aware of the education-work problems faced by adults -in the area. The Council isaffiliated with the Center for Community Organization andArea Development and with the North Central UniversityCenter, both of which serve area adults;

Three hundred thousand people live in the area serVed bythe Council. Over half of these people live on farms and insmall towns; abput 90,000 live in Sioux 'Falls. Most adultsare engaged in farming or in jobs in agribusiness, althoughinmigration to the metropolitan area has been increasingdue to technologic.al change in the rural agricultural 'areas.As many as 2,000 American Indkans may live in the area,according to spokesmen for the Uriited Sioux Tribes.

The learning climate is somber: nearly half of all adults in, South Dakota over 25 years old have not completed high

,school (almost double the national average) and the state hasthe lowest proportion in the nation of high school graduateswho enter coilege; many adults view education as a servicedesigned for youth; adults tend to assume that they cannotchange careers without appearing to be unstable; and sexroles are stereotyped.

30

I Arti

Four adult population groups appear to be faced with un-usual barriers to access to needed education, training, andsupport servicesbarriers which limit equal economic andsocial 'opportunity: young Indian adults, whose unemploy-ment rate is frequently five to eighttimes the rate for whites;single women, ofteddisplaced homemakers, who head fami-lies; young rural adults who are forced to leave farms anddying small towns without job opportunities and who are ill-equipped to compete for jobs upon arrival in the city; andolder people who are severely limited by inflation and.*hooften lack even the elements of survival.

Barriers that prevent these population groups from receiv-ing badly needed education, training, and support seryicesare complex and interrelated. A major priZlem is a pervasivelack of recognition that education is a useful solution tounemployment or underemployment. Second, in Sioux Falls,until very recently, few education and training resourcesexisted which were sufficiently flexible or accessible to servethese needy groups. Existing educational systems are stillnot widely known or understood in the Sioux Falls area.Third, South Dakota has very limited economic resources;the entire state budget for every purpose is abbut equal tothat of a large research university. Finally, while mapy localemployers decry the lack of trajned job applicants, there islimited experience or understanding of how their needsmight be met through adult training systems.

In recent years, however, some unusual new agencies havebeen established in Sioux Falls to provide adults increasedaccess to education and, training. Three private postsecond-ary educational institutions established a unique federationcalled the North Central University Center (NCUC). TheCenter has established a new vocationally-oriented commu-nity college; a community education center providing educa-tion for aging people; a community health educatiOn system;and ,the Public Service Institute, conducting programs inmanagement, supervision, and organizational operation.The NCUC member colleges operate a women's center andcenters for experiential learning and basic skills. The com-munity college operates the, ACCESS Center, the most com-prehensive counseling, testing, and personal assessmentcenter in the Northern Plains.

The Sioux Falls public school board operates a postsecond-ary vocational.technical school, which has undeveloped po-

31

ti

tential for service to adults, and with which the communitycollege is negotiating for cooperative open-entry and degreeprograms.

. Several public agencies, including CETA and the Private*Industry Council, are beginning to sUpport training for job

skills for the economically disadvantaged. Other frainingresources include limited labor 'union apprentice programsand office training available from local proprietary schools.

The Education-Work Council proposed to uSe the AdultLearners Project to bring visibility to these yarious educa-tional and training sy.5tems, to assist them to be seen ashelpful and to be used, and to induce these agencies to focusmore productively tin the four populations most in need.

Project Objectives

The Council set for itself seven objectives for the project:

lb conduct a demographic studY in the Sioux Falls area offour adult groups: young Indian adults, single femaleheads of households, underemployed young rural adultscompelled to leave farms and villages, and low incomeolder people;

To conduct an evaluation of the educational needs of thesefour groups, focusing on their perceptions of barriers toeducation or job access;

S' To assess the capacity of major organizations to provideeducation, training, and support Services to these groups;

To match the four client groups with area education, train-ing, and support groups possessing the 'commitment andresources to servo their special needs;

To proYide technical .assistance .ahd consultation to serfvice-capable organizations to improve existing programsor to design new ones where appropriate;

To identify at least one area education, training, and sup-port group which is most able and willing to provide new orexpanded services to each of the four Client groups; and

.

32 31

To assist each education, training, and support group se-lected in launching the appropriate services..

/ Project Activities

The first activity of the projectwas the demographic study ofthe four client populations.. The study included an evaluationof their educational needs and also provided a partial assess-ment of major organizations' capacities to respond to those-needs. Prior studies pruided very limited information aboutthese populations. Four community-wide generalized educa-tional needs assessments were made prior to the establish-ment of tihe community college and the ACCESS Center, butthe infoation was badly outdated and provided no usefulinformation about the four target populations.

For each of the four populations, the following informationwas compiled: existing demographic data; characteristics,needs, and barriers related to education, and training asperceived by staff members, of human service agencies andeducational institutions that have regular contact withmembers of these groups; arid information on employmentcharacteristics, needs, and barriers as they relate 'to eduCa-tion and training. The information was collected from per-sanal interviews and phone conversations with 39 staff per-sons in 23 agencies and organizations.

The Council ran into a number of difficulties in compilingthe data: the detailed results of the 1980 census wouldn't beavailable for about another year, and even tilen multiplecross-tabulations would be necessary to produ&i:sta as spe-cificas the Council.was seeking; there are no records kept onthe underemployed; the Indian population was under-counted in the 1980 census and the Council had to wait forresults of a later special survey by American Indian Services;the terrns "underemployed," "young adult," and "low in-come" do not have standard meanings among those inter-vieWed; and some of the organizations don't record the char-acteristics of their clients and could give estimates only.

In spite of these difficulties, the survey resulted in a 30-page document that describes in some detail the characteris-tics of the four population groups, the agencies currentlyserving them, and agency staff perceptions of needs for andbarriers to education, training, arid emPloyment.

As a result of the survey, the Council decided to focus the

33

project on yoUng Indian adUlts, because they were clearlyshown to be the group most in need, because the AmericanIndian Services Corporaltion was very interested in par-ticipating, and because the Coun Oil felt that trying to serveall four groups would spread their efforts so thin as to be oflittle use.

There are approximately 2,000 Indian residents in the 18-county area from 26 different tribes. It is estimated that 80 to90 percent of young Indian adults are unemployed and thatthey have an average education of 10th or 11th grade.

Six agencies that could serve Indians were contacted in thesurvey:

American Indian ServiCes Corporation (AIS) providesa variety of emergency, referral, counseling, and advocacyservices. The agency did have a full-time CETA workerdealing with employment problems, but this position hasbeen lost due to federal budget cuts. The AIS directorreported that from August 1980 to May 1981, 1,065 Indianpeople sought assistance from AIS:About 170 (16%) werebetween 18 and 30 years old.

United Sioux 'fribes, Inc. operates a Summer YouthProgram; a CETA program for Indians, largely identical tothe standard CETA programs; a Direct Employment Pro-gram, aimed at developing job skills .of the "hard core"unemployed that pays participants while they are in train-ing; and a Vocational Education Program for penitentiaryinmates and other students in the Siou4 Falls area.

The Job Service indicated that they counsel very fewIndians and that the 46 young adult Indians currentlylisted on their rolls as disadvantaged and, seeking workare probably mostly women in the WIN program.

The Minnehaha County CETA program records showthat from October 1980 to. June 1981, 65 Indians (notbroken out 1337 age) participated in all Cpunty CETA pro-grams.

The Southeast Area Vo-Tech School director estimatedthat 15 Indian students would enroll in the school in the

t..

-34 . 3,5

fall of 1981, but that up to 10 of these would be likely todrop out during the first few weeks of schbol. He,noted thata variety of resources and- opportunities for vocationalschooling are available to Indian students such as bureauof IndianAffairs grants and United Sioux Tribes grants.

The caseworker interviewed at Catholic Family ServicesrePorted that of her caseload of about 5Q persons permonth,' approximately 25 percent- are Indian, -mostlyyoung men seeking emergency assistance.

Staff at these agencies identified' the following needs forand...barriers to education, training, and employment:

Education and 'fraining Needs:

Many of the young Indians' needs are the sarhe as for non-IndiansOn-the-job training, apprenticeships, vocAionaleducation; and GEDs.gSome .organization needs to be specifically resporisible forpost-high school education and vocational`counseling forIndians.

Some openings at the Vo-Tech Shool should be specificallydesignated for Indians.

There should be more Indian teachers in the schools. Cur-rently there are two in the entire Sioux Falls School System.

, Assimilation into "the system" needs to begin at Grade 1,with programs aimed at Parents to reinforce the homesituation in the lower grades.

, Sioux Falls needs an Indian Center which would be re-sponsible for some aspects of adult Indian 'education, suchas GED preparation.

Barriers to Education:

The bureaucracies responsible for providing aid to Indianstudents, e.g., BIA Education Grants, are slow. Some po-tential students give up before their aid comes through.

3 t A 35

Barriers-to mployment:

Many barriers are the same as for young adult non-Indiansof the same socioeconomic classeslack of education, qua];ifications, work skills; and work habits; dress and groom-ing; social skills; and alcoholism.

There is still employer racial discrimination in the area.

Young Ipdians face cultural barriers, such as understand-ing of time, personal values, and religious values.

Often there is no peer.group, especially Indian peers, onthe job.

Frequently there is lack of a stable employment record.

In some cases there is lack of housing and food.

There is'no Indian job counselor at the Job Service.

In some cases, young Indians are unfamiliar with the Awhite approach to life and wori and are afraid to confrontthis gap in understanding. Whites' unfamiliarity with In:dian culture provides the other side of this dilemma.

The Councirs decisign to focus ihe project on young Indianadults was reinforced by an in-depth study supported bY theAmerita`n Indian Services Corporation, which surveyed arepresentative sample of 83 Indian households in the City ofSioux Falls in the summer of 1981. The.survey incltided aneeds assessment and a feasibility study for a multipurposeIndian Center in Sioux Falls It was conducted as an actionresearch project, both to collect information and to identifypeople in the Indian community who could be tapped in thefutufe. Some highlights of the study:

76% of the headsof household are women;

71% have lived in alp Sioux Falli area for less than twoyears; ,

25% are unemployqa: and a high incidence of part-time,

36

,

,

seasonal, and occasidnal employment indicates significantunderemployment;

61% reported incomes of under $5,000; .4,

51% do not have a telephone;

40% reported needing career counseling;

90% think there is a need for an Indian Center;

51% would use the Indian Center for education or as aplace to study.

A major finding of the curvey is that.the Indian people inSioux Falls are families and the recommendations from the,study reflect this finding in their emphasis on providingservices with a4fami1y focus.

,

The second of the study's five recominendations is thateducation and job training for Indiansbe given high priority,based on the following findings: ,

,)

The majority of Indians coming to and residing in theSioux Falls area are in their 20's and 30's . . . They cometo Sioux Falls relatively untrained and with at least an8th grade education. Close to 60 percent have completedtheir high school education. The Indian population isvaried in its occupational and job experience. The Indiancommunity (40 percent) wants job counseling in a vari-ety of blue collar and professional occupations. The ma-jority are active arid eager participants in the local labor,market, but suffer from a lack of full-time employmentopportunities. ,

Work is now proceeding with the Americ-an Indian Services Corporation.and the North Central University Centerto develop a pilot training program, which will be ready forimplethentatithe end of September 1982. The planningprocess involves joint planning meetings of staff people fromAIS, NCUC, and the Education-Work Council; creation of anadvisory committee of business people to identify availablejobs; and planning for long-term flinding by AIS and theCouncil for the pilot program.

i 3 6 37

The training program is expected to place up to 20 youngIndian adults,per year in the labor market in Sioux Falls, toestablish financial stability'for the families of the peopleplaced through the program, to demonstrate the capacity ofIndian people to maintain long-term employment: and todemonstrate the potential of collaboration tusolve a difficulthuman and social problem.

;16.*

4

111141V:di 141.#1aiiAMERICAN INDIAN SERVIvES.

11,11111 111111111141L'ABRI APARTMENTS

I1a1=1411:,11/ IS, Man fVIETNAM ILTULTRLACLOSNTER

LANIER BUSINESS PRODUCTS CENTER

Sioux Falls Arba Education-Work Council

I 'Outcomes

,

Because the training program for young Indian adults Won'tbegin until the fall of 1982, most of the outcomes listed hereare projected rather than already achieved.

' The most visible outcome, of course, will be the trainingprogram itself, which will be unique and the Council staffhopes will be replicable in other urban areas with signifi-cant Indian pOpulatiohs.

A rrijor training facility for Indians, an off-resertrationboarding school about 50 miles north o? Sioux Falls, istargeted for closing. If it is in fact closed, the Adult Learn-ers Projgct's training program would provide an alterna-tive delivery system for training of young Indians.

438

a

In spite.of federal cutbacks, there are still funds availablefor Indian people. One outcome of the project could be arerouting of Bureau of Indian Affairs funds for training inSouth Dakota. Negotiations are cucrenotly taking place toaccomplish this.

As a result of the AduIt Learners Project, the Sioux allsCouncil, is working with a population, Natiye Ameri ns,with which they haven't worked tbefore. ,The Counci isbecoming part of a new network of Aervice providers an ofpeople who can benefit from the Council's brokering role.

The Future

This project will not lend itself to wide dissemination. TheIndian population in the United States is small; the numberof Indian people in metropolitan areas is even smaller. At thesame time their needs are great. This population has beenrepressed for over 100 years and the resulting instability ofthe population is the worst of any ethnic group in thecountry.

The prospects for dissemination are' further reduced be-cause of the limited focus being taken. The AIS study showedthat the greatest stability and potential exists with youngIndian adults who are living in nuclear fainilies. This projectwill focus on existing or potential wage earners in nuclearfamilies, who r4prese9t, a small percentage of the Indianpopulation.

At the same time this narrow focus holds promise forexterision to other areas With urban Indian populations. Noother training effort in the country has ever, been targetedsPecifically at this Indian group. The concept involved here isa good onebuild from existing stability. But the concepthas never been applied as this effort will appl'y it. If the pilottrading effort is implemented and is successful, replicationcould bedone in 'a number of cities, such as Phoenix, Tucson,Denver, and Minneapolis.

3 639

I The Oakland Project.0akland, California

It was assumed that each Indochinese group was fanziliarwith the needs of the other groups. The survey proved that this,is not true. The Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodions eachhave needs that the other groups were not familiar with oraware of The project has helped to develop a new networkamong these communities and to identify Indochinese whocan help design and implement programs to meet their variedneeds.

The Setting

sit The Community Careers-Council of Oakland was formed in1976 to bring about new initiatives in caree4evelopment foryoung people and to establish a youth cy forum. TheCouncil is co-sponsored by the New Oakland Committee andthe Peralta Community College District. The New OaklandCommittee, composed of three caucusesbusiness, labor,and minority--is dedicated to improving the business en-vironment and employment opportunities in Oakland. ThePeralta Community College District operates four collegesin Alameda County and one in Plumas County, areas withhigh concentrations of economically disadvantaged people,unemployed people, and unskilled workers, includingiargenumbers of people who are seeking retraining and upgrad-ing of skills.

The Community Careers Council is composed of 30 mem-bers from the business, labor, and minority caucuses of theNew Oakland Committee; the education, government, andcommunity agency sectors;th'e Community College District;and local unions.

A major activity of the Council has been a clearinghousethat brokers relationships between school and communityagencies serving youth and a variety of business and publicagencies eMploying persons in a wide range of occupations.The clearinghouse provides a contact and scheduling servicethaf coordinates contacts with employers for students in-volved in career education activities at four community col-leges, eleven Oakland high schools, numerous community

40

agencies, and the City of Oakland CETA youth- programs.The Council is currently irkvolved in a program of the

'Western Institute, for Social Research to help communityworkers learn to use action research methods and to teachthese methods to other community workers. The relatfOn-ship between the Council and the Institute in this actionresearch project (giipported in part by the Fund fof the Im-provement of Postsecondary Education) has helped theCouncil to begin broadening it,e agenda beyond a youth focus,and tasonduct the needs assessment in the Adult LearnersProject.

Oakland is a complex urban community. It is the secondmost populous city in the five-county San Francisco Bay areawith a population of alinost 340,000. Oakland's labor force ofaboht 171,000 is largely constituted of people from 25 to 44years Old and includes substantial numbers of ethnic minor,ities. The labor force is characterized by low, tO moderatelevels of educational achievement' and by a cerrespqndinalylow level of marketable job skills. The Equal EmploymentDepartment attributes Oakland's high unemployment rate(currently 9.5 perceilt for adults) to this concentraion of low-skilled and inexperienced job seekers. Labor market projec-tions for the city indicate that there will be a decrease in.opportunities in fields which depend upon low-Skilled man-ual labor, but show growth in fields which depend uponadministrative, technical, and clerical skills.

New capital growth and economic develbpment, are pro-jected for the City of Oakland. The expansion of business and.trade activities projected for downtown could pinvide newOpportunities if people's education, training, and relatedpreparation will allow them to capitalize on the new develop..inents.

In fact, many adults in the Oakland area face career diffi-culties as a consequence of the changing economic mix in theBay area. The plight of those 'whose training is outdated orirrelevant to present demands for skills, and of those withminimal employment history; is in many ways as serious assthat of youth, both for the individuals involved and for the'community as a whole. Flu-the/Imre, a rapidly increasirignew Indochinese refugee population faces language barriers,a new lifestyle, and a new world of work.

There is evidence that the obstacles to self-directed educa-tion and training among adults resemble those that were

41

s,.

identified for young people: a lack of adequate informationabout the structuh of the labor market and an inability toassess one's own characteristics in relation to various careerdemands. Beyond these ob acles, is the further problem aidentifying the most apP opriate rouV to career goalsthrough public and, private educational channels.

Given the characteristics of the labor force and the chang-ing economic climate with changing demands for job skil ls,.itis a Partic41arly opportune time to identify the most- costeffective means of assisting unemployed, underemployed,and transitional adults.

Project Objectives. .

The Community Careers Council set for itself three majorobjectives to address anhadult agenda:

To conduct an assessment of adult neednd the obstacles'to self-directed solutions in the Oakland coinmunity;

To develop pilot projects, including follow:up evaluation, toassist adults in the process of self-assessment, careerchoice, and the selection of appropriate educational routes;and

lb expand the collaborative network of education and em-.ploying organizations in order to accommodate the identi-fied needs of an adult clientele..

The Council designed the Adult Learners Project to op-erate in cyclep, with each cycle covering some of the sameissues as the aevious.one, but at a deeper, more comprehen-sive level:

The first cycle consisted of contacting people from commu-nity-based organizations, the public and private sectors,and educational institutions, to get their advice on theoverall project.desigm and the issues to be addressed.

'The next cycleinvolved identifying and training low:in-come people from each of several target populations tointegiew their peers about their education, training, andemptiyment needs and experiences, and their knowledgeof available services.

42 . ,

The third cycle involved a workshop for service providersand menabers of the target populations to disseminate andshare the information gatheredIhrough the interviews, todiscuss programs that might be developed to respond toidentified needs, and to determine the usefulness of fur-ther needs assessment and resource identification.

The fourth cycle began to address some needs of the adultclientele, while continuing to do some further needs as-sessment and resource identification.

The final cycle is to be another round of meetings to gatherand share,further information, to discuss programs beingdeveloped, and to decide what steps should be taken be-yond the .Kellogg-funded ,project.

Project Ac tiVities

The first project activity was to convene a Task Force toadvise and assist in the project, bVginning by refining theproject objectives. The Task Force identified several groups ofadults clearly in need of education, training, and, employ,-ment services: low-ineome, older ad_qlts; Middle-aged blackmen; welfare mothers; non-English speaking Hispanics; andVietnamese., The Task Force designed a plan that wouldbegin with a needs assessment for each of the populationgronps, with the possibility of finding that one group was in

-such need of Information and services that the project wouldthen focus on that group, The needs assessment was to becarried out by first identifying people in each target popula-tion who could interview their peers, developing a surveymethod, training the interviewers, conducting the inter=views, and analyzing the data to determine the unmet needsfor education, training, nd employment services, as well asthe groups' knowledge of existing services. On the basis ofthis data analysis, the Council would begin pilot projects orhelp others tobegin such projects, with the assistance a theinterviewers and, others from the target populations, to ad-dress the identified unmet needs.

Early in the proje'ct, the Task Force presented this plan to ameeting of about 25 community representatives from com-munity-based organizations, the public and private sectors,and educational institutions. The community group agreed

43

that the basip project design was appropriate, but stronglyrecommended that the project focus its efforts on the Indochi-nese community, including not only Vietnamese, hut alsoLaotians and Cambodians. The group felt that of 'all the .

possible populations in need of information and services, theIndochinese communities have by far the greatest needs,, andthat this fact is little recognized by the larger community.The group also felt that members of the Indochinese commu-nities have the greatest difficulty applying their skills totheir present environment.

Because of the wisdom of this recommendation, the Coun-cil decided to alter its project plans and to accePt the commu-nity representatives' collective recommendation to explorewith Indochinese service providers and community leaders,the possibilities of SAirvOing local Indochinese populations.

The first step was to identify those people in the Indochi-nese communities to whom the Council could describe theproject and, get advice as to its desirabilityand feasibility,and also as to how to proceed. After speaking\vith leaders inthese communities, the Task Force and the Council wereconvinced that the project was neededin the Indochinesecommunities, and, based on the advice of Indochinese serviceproviders, decided to include V:ie Laotianond Canibodiancommunities in the survey.

Because little background information was availableabout the varied Indochinese communities, the Council hadto delay the beginning of the needs assessment to gatherbasic information about the populations living in the Oak-land area and to. identify people from within those commu-nities who could effectively conduct the interviews. In orderto coMpile this information, Council staff went back to thepeople who work in agencies that teach or otherwise,servethe Indochinese people and to leaders of each community.

These interviews produced basic information on the char-acteristics of each community. Fore mple, the Laotiangroup includes three tribes, as well an urban population.Each tribe speaks a different langu ge and two .of the tribeshave no written language. A majo ity of the people in allthree tribes have few, if any, skills that can be transferred toth.eir new urban environment. In the Cambodian communi-ty, the various groups do understand each other's languagesand seem to have a higher level of education. 'Although. thecommunity seems to be,more cohesive than *Laotians, few

44 --

organizations to assist ,Cambodians were identified.The staff also found that there are two quite different

Vietnamese populations in the Bay area: those who arriVedin' the United Slates prior to 1975 and those who arrivedafte'r 1975. The pre-1975 arrivals are primarily professionalsand para-professionals. In order to enter the StaLes, they haato have a sponsor or be financially indep t. Thepost-1975 arrivals are primarily farmers and laborers andcame here as refugees who were aided financially by the U.S.government and service organizations, and given help withresettlement, education, and training. There is apparentlysome friction between the two groups, partly because of theirsocial and economic class differences and partly because ofthe aid received by the refugees that the earlier immigrantsdidn't receive. Anothea distinction among the Vietnamesethat Sometimes causes friction is the difference between theTri4jority of Vietnamese and the minority who are ethnicallyChinese.

Before talking to the service providers and communityleaders, the Council staff had no idea the problems in theIndochinese community were so severe. They learned soonthat certain aspects of the plan the Task Force had developedfor conducting the community interViews would not work inthe Indochinese community. Interviewing methods needed-to be altered to take into account the fact that the people inthe Indochinese communities ,are very reluctant to talkopenly about their experiences and concerns, even with otherpeople in their own community. Also it was very hard tofindpeople within the communities who could converse wellenough in their own language and in English to serve asinterviewers. The recruitment of interviewers took muchlonger than originally anticipated.

The new interviewing strategy included recruiting inter-viewers from the community organizations that serve theIndochinese communities, altering the training'provided forthe interviewers, and interviewing the interviewers as tbeproject progressed to elicit, their concerns and especialtytheir perceptions of how the needs assessment was gOing.

Somewample interview questions:

; What is a typical day in your life like? How is it differentfrom a typical day before you came here?

4 4'45

Do you hay eighbors, friends, or relatives who have goodjobs? What ki ds of jobs? How did they get them? What isthese about these jobs that makes them so good?

What kind of work did you do before you'came here andwhat would you like to do now? What makes that practicalor impractical?

What problems are you encountering here? What's pre-venting you' from leading the kind of life you would like to?

How do you get information that helps you to obtain thingsyou need, such as medical care, food, homing, education,

d work?

w do you see the roles of men and women here in yourcommunity? Are they different than in your home coun-try? How do you feel about the roles as they are here?

What is the nature of your ties with other people from yourethniocommunity? Do you see your present ties changingin the near future? How would you like to see your tieswith your community and other communities change inthe future?

At this w9ting, the Council staff and the consultant fromthe Western Institute 'for Social Research have just com-pleted six weeks of meetings two evenings-a week with thecommunity interviewers to discuss their findings, probedeeper into the information (interviewing the interviewersand facilitating discussion among interviewers), anti modifythe questions.aSked. Because of the limited ability of most ofthe interviewers to write reports in English, and because oflack of funds to pay for detailed reporting, the interviewers'verbal descriptions were rêcorded at these evening sessionson tape and in extensive notes taken by the Council staffperson and the consultant. The interviewers added much oftheir own experiences and feelings to the discussions.

The next step will be to analyze what was learned, themost important issues identified, and what more needs to belearned. The Council does not expect to be able to Makespecific recommendations as to a future. program for theIndochinese, but only to make the service and community

46

organizations, both Indochinese and others, educational, in-stitutions, and employing agencies aware of the issuesrevoaled.

Mario Fones

The Council staff and the consultant are now just begin-jning to identify tentatively what look like some major issueifor the Indochinese communities:

,Difficulties in learning English: When is A person compe-tent enough to be placed in a job and not,face failtire due,not to lack of job skills, but to the inability to communi-cate? Adults who are illiterate in their own languages, or

Iwho have rio familiarity with the concept of written lan-guage, Have extreme difficulty adjusting to classroomtraining. Within each community there are widely differ-ent levels of literacy and prior education. .

Difficulties encountered by community organizations inproviding adequate services: First and foremost, fundshave been cut. In addition there is a lack of trust in someformal Indocfiinese organizations, particularly Viet-namese, but there is often informal peer support. Thereappears to be a need for and the possibility of developing"self help" community groups. ..:-

4 6 47

The conditions affecting the relationshipsi9etween womenand men are quite different in the United States than theywere in the Indochinese people's home communities.

There are different rates of acculturation for different sub-groupsfor different age .groups, for males and females,for different socioeconomic classes.

Through the survey, the Indochinese people learned moreabout the needs of other Indochinese people. It was assumedthat each group was familiar with the needs of the othergroups. The survey proved that this is not true. Each group isquite different and each has needs that the other groups werenot familiar 1A-rith or aware of..

Outcomes

The Oakland Adult Learners Prect has proceeded moreslowly than anticipated because of the complexity of theIndochinese communities and because the Oakland needsassessnient is not the conventional type done "on" or "about"a group of people, but rather is an effort to engage the peoplebeing studied in a consideration of their needs and in discus-sion of services and community development strategies thatcould be pursued by them, with them, and in some cases forthem.

Although the Council is still in the process of analyzingthe information gathered, some future outcomes can be pro-jected:

Government, educato,0, employers, krvice providers, andcommunitY people in the Bay area will know a great dealmore about the needs and capabilities of the Indochinesecommunities as a result of the Adult Learners Project.

The Council has entered and helped to further develop anew network of,people who need assistance and who canprovide help in designing and implementing that assis-tance.

4811

The Future

A long-range agenda includes the rollowing activities:

The Council Will sponsor formal discussion in the Indochi-.nese comniunities on issues such as the roles of men andwomen, intergenerational relationships, arid strategies ofcommunity_development.

The Council will assist the Indochinese service providersin developing education and training programs for com-munity people involved in community development.

The Council will sponsor workshops for the employingcommunity and educational institutions to make themaware of the employment, education, and cultural needs ofthe Indochinese people.

,

49'

The Portland ProjectPortland, Oregon

Because a major problem in Portland is access to informa-tion, the Council is planning a catalogue for adults in need ofeducation and training'tkat will include information on edu-cation and training resources and placement agencies in thePortland metropolitan area to make those tesources moreaccessible.

The Settingt

--"i'he Greater Portland Work-Edut cation CounCil was estab-lished in 1977, not to directly operate programs, but to facili-tate, support, and expand other existing education-work pro-grams for youth in the Portland area. The Council serves theentire Portland Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area(SMSA), which includes three counties in Oregon and one inWashington, with,a total population of over 1,250,000/

The Council's szpall staff and its broad-based membershipof local and seateepresentatives have ensured the Council'sability to influe* local and state, public and private policy-making on a Wi'de number of fronts, among them careereducation, legislation, child labor laws, economic develop-ment.planning, CETA, and basic education. The Council hasdeveloped' a "how-to" manual for establishing work-educa-tion countils in other areas of Oregon, has conducted a sur-vey of attitudes of youth toward work, has conducted a surveyof child labor laws ,in Oregon, has a task force stUdying

. proposed legislation regarding.work-education issues, andhas helped with the development of the Metro Private Indus-try Council. Participation in the Adult Learners Project isenabling the Portland Council to extend its effective brOker-ing and catalytic processes to the education-work problemsof adults in PortlanZglid in Oregon.

Portland is an industridl city and r. er port in north-western Oregon on the Willamette r. Five industriesdominate Portland's manufacturing tor: metal working;food and kindred products; lumber, furniture, and timberproducts; electronics; dnd clothing. Organized laborstrength in' Portiand is significant. The unemployment rate

50

in D cember 1981 was 10.5 percent in the Portland SMSAand a rise to 11 percent was projected by the State Employ-ment Division for early 1982.

DeSpite the growth of local institutions that address theeducational needs of adultsMarylhurst Education Center,Linfield College, Portland State University's Division ofContinuing Education, three community colleges, theYWCA, CETA, the Northwest Labor College, state-fundeddisplaced homemaker projects, and othersmany adults re-main unaware of services and resources or are unable to takeadvantage of those that exist. Among the significant con-cerns of adult service practitioners are the following:

Lack of adequate career guidance for adults;

Lack of adequate information about resources that couldhelp support a return to school or training;

. .

Lack of a coordinated networking approach to transitionservices that help adults manage or balance work, family,and education activities; and

4Lack of low-risk opportunities to explore career and educ a-

atiOnal options.

Two local projectsthe Education Information CenterProject -and lhe Tri-County Labor Market Information Proj-ecthave taken some first steps toward identifying institu-tional and employer:based resources for education and train-ing. However, the limitations jof smalj budgets have potpermitted adequate dissemination of information or provi-sion of services to the target groups of adults whose needs aregreatest. Needs assessment has not been a focus of eitherproject.

The Adult Learners Project is designed to build on whathas been done and to take the needed next steps to ithproveaccess to information and services and to assess adult learn-ing needs in the community.

The Council is working closely with the Northwest Re-gional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) through a sub-contract which provides a staff person to the project from theLab. NWREL has' a program in Career Redirectioni forAdults, which has provided their staff with invaludlle con-tacts that can be tapped for the Adult Learners 1;roject.

51

.-

Project Objectives

The Portland Adult Learners Project has eight objectives:,

To gather information necessary to assess the needs ofadult learners;

To gather additional information about the resources ofexisting institutions and organizations that are availableor could b'e made available to meet the needs of adultlearners;

To develop a long-range agenda for improving adults' ac-cess to training and eduCation opportunities;,

To encourage more efficient use of existing education andtraining resources;

To facilitate institutional and private sector networkingfor the benefit of adult learners;

To generate long-term support and commitment aipong allsectors with an interest in improvement of adult learning

s. services;

.To identify ,gaps in current servicesAto adults; and

.-To racomMend specific actions to fill current gaps ia ser-vices to adult learners.

The,Council's approach toward meeting the eight objec-tives was planned to include the establishment of a task forceto, analyze available information, two half-day community-wide workshops to encourage linkages among existing re-sources meeting neetls of.adults, developmerrt of a long-rangeagenda to fill in gaps in resources, and a brochure listingresources available to meet the needs of adults in the Port-

,.

lan area,

Project Activities

The first activity of the Portland Council was the identifica-,tiori of other key actors in the adult education, traihing, and

52 5 .1_

7-

, employment fields to alert them to the project and explorepossibilities for their pat.ticipation. Community institutions'contacted inctuded private sector business, industry, andlabor; CETA prime sponsors; Private Industry Councils;community colleges and other training/education institu-tions; the State Employment Division; the State Bureau of

' Labor; and'the City of Portland. Building this network ,in-volved several months of individual meetings for the CouncilExecutive birector and staff, as well as larger planningmeetings with community representatives. Establishing asolid foundation of community involvement was a priorityearly in the project in order to find out where informationexists in Oregon about the needs of adults in transition andthe resources to meet those needs, and in order to build abase from which to carry forward the adult transition agen-da after the Kellogg funding ended.

Because of limited resources, the decision was made earlyto use existing surveys and studies and to interview knowl-edgeable individuals in order to develop information onadults' needs and resources. The project was slowed downsomewhat because two vital surveys were in progress and theCouncil decided to delay faming an Adult Education and,Training Task Force until the information from these sur-veys was available.

A Metropolitan Labor Market Survey that.provided thebase of information was coordinated by Mt, Hood Conimuni-ty College. (Data from this survey weren't available until thefall of 1981.) The survey was funded by a consortium includ-ing four community colleges, four CETA prime sponsors,four ewnomic development agencies, the City of Portland,the Port of Pbrtland, and the Oregon Occupational Informa-tion Cobrdinating Coencnittee; many of the key institutionsand individuals to be on the Adult Education and TrainingTask Force 'were already involved in this consortium. Theobjective of the Labor Market Survey was "to gather morecomplete and detailed household and employer data for in-stitutional planning, including job training 'developmentand economic development, by the public and private sec-tor . . .- Two surveys were conducted: 1) 6,000'households inthe Portland. SMSA to focus on labor -force c,Daracteristics, '-,training needs, and attitudes of individuals bZth in 'and outof the labor force toward working conditions,, barriers toemployment, and job training, and 2) 2,000 employers to

53

focus (in qualitative information about trSining neeils, staffturnovee, difficulty -in filling jobs,-Iand the effects of techno-logical changes on job duties of employees. .

A second study, Unemployment in the Portland Area, pre-pared by the Metro Private Industry Council, completed inDecember 1981, was another important basis of information.Unlike thelLabor Market Survey, this report looked at theemploymeht and unemployment experiences of specific pop-.ulations, thus giving the Council a basis for 'determiningwhether a target population should be designated for theproject..

A third study on "Educational Information Systems inOregon," sponsored by the Educational Coordinatialg Com-mission, provided information about education services.Some of that study's conclusions reinforced the Council'sbelief that one of the largest difficulties potential adultlearners in Oregon face # siMply lack of information aboutwhat is available:

Information on education and career opportunities andoptions is primarily designed for and delivered to enrolledhigh school students.

. -

Sig nificant numbers of persons are unaware of where toobtain educational and career information services, and of.those who are aware, significant numbers do not makeuseof them for a variety of reasons.

. .

Oregon citizens do not frave equal access to educa-ti011alinformation services. Significant barriers to access iticlude

v...._ the location of services, the times they are available, andclient eligibility requirements to Use educational informa-tion services. .9 .

Much of the current printed information postsecondaryinstitutions make available to prospective students does

.. not assure readability or encourage educational choices.

The Council also reviewed reports from the EducationalInformation Center and from several agencies serving spe-cifit populaiion groups.

A task force was formed and began meeting in the spring of1982. The Task Force includes members from community

54

cblleges and the University of Oregon, the Metro PrivateIndustry Council (whose director chairs the Task Force), theOccupational hiformatidn Coordinating Committee, North-west CAEL (Council for the Advancement of ExperientialLearning), the 'AFL-CIO's Human Resources DevelopmentInstitute; the Senior Job Center, the City of Portland, theState Employment Division, and private sector employers.Their Cask is to recommend a long-range action agenda formeeting the employment 'and training needs of the adults inthe metropolitan area. Recommendations and strategies forimplementing them will be published in a brochure to beprepared at the cloSe of the ,project. - "

The Task Force first reviewed the information collebted bythe Council staff in order to decide whether the 'projectsllopld focus orf a particular population. group. The TaskForce 'initially identified a number of potential targetgroups: women, refugees, older workers, ex-offenders, mi-norities, young adults, handicapped, displaced homemakersand other labor market re-entrants, and displaced workers.

After reiriew of the information on adult learners' needsand aVailaW resources, the Task Force recommended focus-ing the:projeet on adults 40 years old and older who are intransition. The report on Unemployment in the PortlandArea summarized the situation of the "ordee worker:

Of all thechanges projected for the 1 bor market duringthe balance of this century, the one with potentially themost serious consequences may well be the aging of thework force. . . .

IUnemployment among this group (aged 40 to 65) tendsto be extremely low, even during times of high unem-ployment. Theslifficulties arise for this group if they dobecomel unemployed. Statistics show that duration ofunemployment among this group is much longer thanfor yo hger persons. (Between 25 and zk4 years old, 19perce of the unemployed are withotit work for 15weeks

I

and more; the comparable rate for those 45 andover ia 28 percent.) Declining incomes attend the longerunem loyment periods and many may opt for early re-tirem nt as they join the ranks of the discouraged work-er. It is generally recognized that discriminative pat-ternsj in hiring tend to increase after the age of 40.

55

Companies tend to believe that' the costs involved inhiring a person froM this age group may not compensatefor the costs associated with training, retirement, and ashOrter anticipatedduration of employment. . . .

The myth that worker productivity is impaired by agedoes not automatically apply at age. 65. In many cases,,productivity is unaffected except where hard manuallabor is required. The experience and eagerness theycan bring to the work environment is a potential whichis severely underutilized.

'

11111111111.-

IOW

Sr,

Wand Community Coller 'The Task Force Was concer d that a target group be

selected that is unlikely to b ;ell-served, by existing pro-gramsso that duplication of service can he minimized. TheCouncil's Executive Director also chairs the Private IndustryCouncil's SubCommiilee on Special .Target Groups andthrough that experienve, could assure the Tasic Force thatwhile funds are being cut, there is still some money available

56

alb

,

for othspopulation groups, but n6thing left for older workers.Refugees were also of great Concern to the Task Force

members. In June of 1981, there were over 12,000 Indochi-nese refugees in the Portland area, with 450 new arrivalsevery month. Cash assistaiice, educational benefits, and sup-port for other setvices are being cut. Th*Fllask Force recog-nized that often the over-40 refugee is the most difficult toplace in education or employment, and decided to define thetarget population as 40 + adults, particularly refugees, dis-placed worlkers, and labor market re-entrAnts.

At this writing, the Task Force has named two Subcommit-tees to -work on two components for agenda recommendations and implementation:

Brokering strategies that use existing services, includecareer planning, provide information on education andtraining, and facilitate on-site job exploration and workexperience. for those who need it, and

Awareness and public relations a. ctivities targeted to thebusiness and indlistry/agency community so that sectorwill become more involved*in helping meet the targetgroup employment, education, and trOning needs..

Additional Task Force recomniendations include that "pro-cess" be emphasized to encourage 'inclusiveness and broadparticipation, emphasis be placed on preventing worker dis-placement, economic development be considered integral tothe agenda, and alternatives for implementation be flexible.

Because a major problem in Portland is access to informa-tion, the Council is also planning a brochure for adults inneof education and training that will include informationon education and training resources and placement agenciesin the Portland metroPolltan area to Make those resourcesmore *accessible.

Outcomes

Because the project was delayed considerably while, two ma-jor surveys were completed, early outcomes areTa yet evi-dent foi the target population 40 years old anei older. How-ever, several" process outcomes and predictable futureoutcomes can be. identified:

57

The Council has broadened its base of support, both gener-ally and specifically in the interests of adults. Through theearly planning meetings and the Adult Education andTraining Task.Force, the Council staff and members haveidentified people and institutions in Portland that serveadult learners and workers, and have begun to help build anetwork among those people and institutions.

The Council has identified and developed a baseline of, information-about adult learners' needs and resources to

meet those needs that will help the Councirand otherinierested organizations to continue an adult agenda aftl-i -

the end of the Kellogg-funded project.

The brochure to be produced at the end of the project listingresources available to adult learners will be a first steptoward breaking through the barrier of lack of informa-tion. ,

The Future 1

Council staff has begun to explore possibilities for funding tosupplement4his grant as well as to continue the project inthe future. Possibilities are encouraging because Councilmembers are committed to the adult project and because thisproject supplemqnts, fills in gaps, and sets a course ofadionwhich expands upon work now being done in Portland. Whatis now neeessary is a network to follow through on a long-range,agenda for action. The Council expects that this proj-ect will strengthen the impetus for- coordination of adultlearning services well into the futu7...,

:-,

58

-

,

..

<4,.

What Have We Learned?

The Adult Learners Project has enabled education-workcouncils in five communities to demonstrate that collabora-tive problem-solving' and collaborative action can begin toremove barriers to adult learning. The councils are acting as,the catalysts to bring tqgether education institutions, employ-ers, arid community serVice agencies in order to pool theirknowledge of adult learners' needs, to develop strate4es tomeet those needs, and to provide their communities withinformation about available resources.

Although each of the five councils participating in the AdultLearners Project has chosen a different population group toserve, there have been some common threads in their experi-ences. Also, by addressing adult learners' needs and assess-ing resources in specific and quite varied locations, somegeneral knowledge about the adult learning climate hasbeen gained.

We Learned About the Process of Creating a Project

In orcter to develop an agenda to meet adult learners' needs,to use available resoiirces effectively, and to recommend newservices and resourceS, all five councils began from two in-terrelated processes: building a network of individuals andinstitutiOns that serve adults and building a base of informa-tion on adults' needs and resources available to meet thoseneeds. Mthough these councilahad -all done precisely thesesame things for a number of years to enable them to assistyouth in their communities, we had all perhaps forgottenhow long these processes take.

,Bililding the network takes months of meetings with indi-viduals and bringing these individuals together to, address acommon problem. In Charleston and Worcester, earlier coun-cil activities with adult-serving institutionsallowed thisprocess to move fairly quickly; in Portland some new link-ages had to be established; arid in Sioux Falls and Oaklhndentirely new population groups and the agencies and institu-tions that serve them had to be brought together. Howeverlaudable the goals and however firmly all parties agree that

59:

they should be and want to be involved, the building ofmutual trust and,the abilitk to woiit collaboratively simplytakes time and it is almost impossible to say in advance howlong that time may be.

The network building is vital for at least two purposes:1) collaboratiye ptbblem-solving and collaborative action,which form the heart of these projects, and 2) developing aninformation base, the second process that always seems totake more fiipe than anticipated.

Each council was required to assess adult learners' needsand the resources available to meet those needs. That soundslike a straightforward task; it isn't, as was shown in the,fivecase studies. All five councils conducted their surveys withan "action" strategy that would allow the survey process tobe as immediately useful as possible to those being sur-veyedthat would involve them, inform them, and begin tobuild a network among those Isteing surveyed, whether individual adults, service providers, aucators, or employers.

The councils could have, probably much more quickly,combined existing information with a mailed survey ques-tionnaire and designed an agenda without eyer involving,the people and instittitions being surveyed. The result mighthave been a faster, smoothet process and a tidy agenda onpaper, but no interest at all on,the part'of the community. Onthe other hand, an active, participative approach to the sur-veys took more time than anticipated, presented difficulties,and resulted in shifting agendas, but assured communityinterest and further strengthened the networks.

We Learned AbOut Adult Learners

Perhaps the most important single thing we have learned isthat adults of all ages, both sexes, all racial and socioeconom-ic groups have tremendous needs for education and training.Because these five councils have chosen to concentrate their,projects on a "most needy" population in their communitiesdoes not mean that other groups aren't in great need also:The assessments of adult learning needs done early in theproject confirraed that adults of all classes and ages, em-yloyed as well as unemployed, need education and trainingin order to enter the Workforce or to keep up with what isbecoming more and more rapid change in the content ofjobs.

On the other hand, we have learned that the lack of educa-

'60

tion and training services may not be as severe a problem asthe lack of information about their availability; lack of coun-seling services; lack of flexibility to accommodate adult

--"learnerS; and lack of coordination and collaboration amongeducation institutions, employers, and community serviceagencies to pool their knowledge of adult learners' needs, avail-able resources, and information and outreach strategies.

Each of these five communities has enormous resources foradult learners among its educatiowinstitutions and employ-

,. er and union education and training programs, yet many"IR adults in all five communities said they did not know what

was available to them or how to go about finding out. Lack ofaccessible information appears to be the primary barrier toadults seeking further learning, for without information,there's no starting point.

The need for counseling for both education and employ-ment appears to be the second major barrier. Even with'information on services available, adults need assistance incharting a course, in making useful decilions. Perhaps wehave concluded that adults are or should be able to siftthrough information about various educational routes andoccupational choices and make their own decisions. The sur-vey results from five communities tell tis this isn't so; adultsneed information and assistance in making the best use ofthat information.- Lack of institutional flexibilitY to accommodate adult

learners is a barrier that certainly exists in fact, but may also. exist almost as much as a perceived barrier. Adults tend tothink of educational Anstitutions as being structured foryouthful learners and may be hesitant to enter that environ-ment. But the fact is that postsecondary institutions aredesperate for students and many, if not most, would be will-ing to offer courses at times and in places that would interestadult leainers,-if they knew what adults wanted in terms ofcourse content, class times, and locations. The educational ,-institutions also need information arid assistance.

The Adult Learners Project has enabled education-workcouncils in five communities to demonstrate that collabora-tive problem-solving arid collaborative action can begin toremove these barriers to adult learning. The councils are-acting as the catalysts .to bring togetheneducation institu-tions, employers, and community service agencies in order topool their knowledge of adult learners' needs, to develop

,

61

strategies to meet those needs, and to provide their commu-nities with information about available resources.

A Common Problem

These five communities, like the rest of the nation, are in themidst of a period of turmoil brought on by the current eco-nomic situation. Budgets are being cut everywhere theyturn. CETA programs are folding; the few counselors pro-vided through CETA are gone. Educational institutions aresuffering),employers are having to cut back on the number ofemikees'asnd on their benefits, and social service agenciesare gOing broke. Unemployment is high; even in Charlestonand Worcester where this problem is perhaps not so desper-ate for the general population, unemployment is high for thepopulations the projects are focusing on. Unemployed peopkdon't have the resources, ffnancinl or psychological, to return0 education, and, in fact, may be barred from doing so if theyare receiving unemployment insurance. The climate for in-troducing "community collaboration for adult learners" isnot very welcoming, just when the need for such a strategybecomes more iMportant.

A Common Outcome.

In spite of the economic situation, in each of these five com-munities, there has been progress as a result of these proj-ects. Paradoxically, shórtages of resources often force peopleto collaborate in order to make the best use of the few avail-able sources Of support. The councils, both members andstaff, have benefitted by work,ing with new populations; thecommunities have benefitted by new collaborative alliances 1/that are struggling to serve the adults of their communitieswith the resources at hand, and with much volunteer effort.

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Next Steps

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. .The variety of experiences we have been involved with dur-ing the Adult Learners Project have proven the effectivenessof certain practices. We are now confident that these demon-strations can be replicated successfully in many other com-munities. What is needed is a strong collaborative council ofsome kind willin4o modify model programs to accommo- \date local situati@ns and to provide support for a local effort.The achievemen of the five education-work councils havetaught us the powe nd potential of these local groups if theyinvolve the appropriate players and if their interest is main-tained by agenda items that seem to them to be relevant andtimely. .

Please contact us if your community is interested in build-ing institutional collaboration among employer S, educators,and others in the community to creatively expand adults'educational opportunities and improve the artipulation be-tween those opportunities and adults' working- lives.

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Portland Community College

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For more information about theAdult Learners Projects . .

Richard A. UngererStaff CoordinatorNational Institute for Work and Learning1302 18th Street,N.W., Suite 501Washingtdn, D.C. 20036(202) 887-6800

Ann.C. Baker, Executive DirectorTrident Work-Education CounciliCharleston Higher Education Consortium171 Ashley AvenueCharleston, South Carolina 29425'(803) 792-3627

Robert J. Sakakeeny, Executive DirectorWorcester Area Career Education Consortium25 Harvard StreetWorcester, Massachusetts 01609(617) 756-9804

Victor Pavlenko, Executive DirectorSioux Falls Area Education-Work Council2118 South Summit AvenueSioux Falls, South Dakota 57105(605) 336-5236

Frankie M. Arrington, Executive DirectorCommunity Careers Council1730 Franklin Street, Suite 270Oakland, California 94612(415),763-4234

Carol Stone, Executive DirectorGreater Portland Work-Education Council529 S.W. Third Avenue, Fifth FloorPortland, Oregon 97204(503) 248-4817

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