Vickie Choitz, Mary Freeman, Larry Good, CSW
Four years ago, the Detroit Mayor’s Office led a strategic planning process to strengthen and expand the adult foundational skills system in Detroit. Good jobs were coming back to the city, but too many residents were being left behind due to unmet need for adult education and effective job training. Through this 2017-2018 strategic planning process, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) analyzed the data on the need for adult education in Detroit, researched national best practices in adult education and job training, and documented the current state of adult foundational skills development in the Motor City. The report, Detroit Adult Foundational Skill Development: Challenges and Solutions, summarizes the research findings.
From there, the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund (housed at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan), JPMorgan Chase, and Detroit at Work (the city workforce development agency) jointly funded nearly $1 million for the 2019-2020 Economic Mobility Grant initiative, supported by CSW and Reading Works, a local adult education intermediary organization. This initiative supported ten organizations or partnerships of adult education and workforce training providers to implement one of four evidence-based models: (1) contextualized integrated education and training; (2) career pathway bridge or on-ramp programs; (3) accelerated high school equivalency programs; or (4) employer-based adult foundational skills programming.
The Economic Mobility Grant initiative was a success, as described in this article in the recently-released workforce development issue part 2 of the COABE Journal. Check out the author interview here, too! The initiative supported hundreds of Detroiters in improving their adult foundational skills, earning high school equivalents, and attaining occupational credentials. It provided professional development and capacity building for dozens of adult education professionals and their workforce development partners on leading-edge adult education program models, including acceleration, contextualization, and integration. Adult education organizations tested innovations in online learning, which proved to be critical when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The initiative helped organizations across adult education and workforce development better integrate their efforts and deepen partnerships. Perhaps most importantly, it helped to tighten and strengthen the network of providers and system partners, which helped them rally and face together a global pandemic and economic shutdown.
Times got tough as the coronavirus pandemic raged throughout the globe in 2020 and into this year. Education and training providers struggled to support students in health and financial crisis and to enroll students online. But they persevered. And now, Detroit at Work continues the forward progress toward strengthening and expanding adult foundational skills development in the City, hardly missing a beat. Public adult education providers have been co-located at the city workforce agency, with an expansion to nine centers spread throughout Detroit’s neighborhoods. Detroit at Work intentionally built from the Economic Mobility Grant initiative by issuing a Request for Proposals for contextualized integrated education and training programs in April 2021.
CSW could not be more thrilled with these developments and proud of our partners in Detroit for forging ahead with a bold collective vision to significantly strengthen and expand adult foundational skills development in the city. Too often, initiatives come and go, which really could have been the case with the disruption of a global pandemic. But adult education and workforce development partners persevered to provide economic opportunities for Detroiters.
Detroit’s motto is “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus,” which translates to “We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes.” This motto was penned by Father Gabriel Richard after a terrible fire swept through Detroit on June 11, 1805 (Daily Detroit, August 18, 2016). Indeed, Detroit’s adult foundational skills partners and system are rising from the ashes of the simultaneous COVID-19 economic, health, and racial pandemics stronger, smarter, and more determined than ever. Resurget cineribus!
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