Recent Mott Foundation News -- Pathways Out of Poverty

Joe Davis: Building better learning through afterschool

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:38:26 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

Good afterschool programs extend classroom learning
Afterschool offers alternative paths to learning
New Web site: Expanding Learning a resource for schools and educators

When Joe Davis was a young teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, he often stayed after school to grade papers or finish lesson plans — and his classroom quickly became a hangout for students with no place to go. Searching for ways to keep them entertained, Davis resorted to using suggestions for extracurricular work that appeared in the margins of his teacher’s textbooks. “I never had the time to use those ideas during the school day,” he said. “But the kids really responded to those activities.” Now Chief Operating Officer for the Florida Afterschool Network, the former Chief of the Bureau of Family and Community Outreach at the Florida Department of Education has assumed the role of national spokesperson for the Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project, a new Mott-funded initiative designed to help spread the use of high-quality afterschool programming to districts across the country.

High quality after school programs accelerate student achievement. Click to expand (PDF).

Mott: You’ve been involved with the afterschool movement since you were a classroom teacher. What prompted you to build a career in this area of education?

Davis: My career evolved quite by accident. I was planning to go to law school, but I took a year off after college and started substitute teaching to earn some money. I ended up as a long-term substitute, teaching English at middle school — and it was a blast. I was offered a permanent teaching position and spent five years as an EH (emotional handicapped classroom) teacher for 22 sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students. During my ten years of teaching middle-school kids — I also taught history in a regular classroom — I realized how afterschool programs fueled my creativity as a teacher and how that kind of learning connected with the kids.

In too many districts, we let our middle-school students out at three o’clock with no place to go. It’s a travesty, really. Good afterschool programs make a teacher’s day easier. Not only can they extend classroom learning — without the pressure of tests — but they help the school make positive connections with students. When I took a job at the Florida Department of Education, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. I soon realized the significance of the impact of that program on over 65,000 Florida students every year. I was also able to apply what I learned through my own afterschool activities to shape what was being done at the state level. Leaving the Department of Education to become the COO of the Florida Afterschool Network has only intensified my commitment.

Mott: Why do you believe quality afterschool programs extend and expand learning?

Davis: I have to go back to my days of teaching, when I saw how differently students responded to academic subjects in the afterschool environment. My social studies class was reading a historical fiction novel about the American Civil War. Borrowing from a suggestion in a teacher’s textbook to assign a student a character from a novel and write additional lines and scenes for them, I decided to use that afterschool. My students loved it. The book came alive for them. From writing the new scenes we went to acting the scenes — and none of those activities cost me anything more than time and imagination.

I think fun and enjoyment is a critical part of high-quality afterschool programming. Nothing is more discouraging than visiting an afterschool program that is just used as a holding pen for kids.

Mott: In this era of tight budgets, why should districts consider afterschool programs an essential part of the academic day?

Davis: Good programming after school makes teaching easier and learning easier. And now we have research confirming what most teachers know intuitively — high-quality afterschool programming has a positive impact on the academic performance, attendance and behavior of students.

Funding for afterschool is a tough problem for a lot of districts. But if you can provide a safe space for kids after school, a place where they have opportunities to grow socially and emotionally, there’s no reason why you can’t take that next step and make it educationally relevant. Even with tight budgets, schools can tap community resources, recruit volunteers from local colleges or service organizations and experiment with flexible teaching schedules. It’s always a surprise to see how well kids will respond to classroom material when it’s presented in a different light, with a little less formality than during the school day.

There’s a lot to be gained through an investment in afterschool. It’s tough, but superintendents and principals have to ask themselves how existing budgets can be leveraged so that afterschool space can be made available and learning can be incorporated into even the most simple, low-cost activities.

Mott: You’ve agreed to serve as a spokesperson for the new Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project, funded by the Mott, Noyce and Packard foundations. Tell us a little more about the purpose of this initiative.

Davis: Right now, we’re trying to leverage technology to get research and information about effective afterschool programs into the hands of interested parties — any organization, school district, educator or administrator interested in starting a program or improving an existing program.

Our Web site, www.expandinglearning.org, hosts some great new research by Joseph Durlak (Loyola University Chicago) and Roger Weissberg (University of Illinois at Chicago) that underscores the link between high-quality programs and student achievement.

Expandinglearning.org is the starting point. How people use the site will help determine the type of information and technical assistance we offer and how it will be delivered. We are hopeful that the contacts made through the Web site will help grow local programs and build our base of best practices in afterschool.

“Big Sales Night” transforms elementary students into entrepreneurs

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:05:09 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

YouthQuest afterschool program uses real life experiences to reinforce learning
“Big Sales Night” fosters entrepreneurial skills in young students
Expanded Learning and Afterschool Web site links communities with resources

Video By: DUANE M. ELLING

It’s not every day that a third-grade class has the opportunity to produce and market its own music CD. But at Freeman Elementary School in Flint, Michigan, Jef Johnson, a learning guide for the YouthQuest afterschool program, used his skills as a music producer to introduce an enthusiastic class of 9-year-old singers to the recording industry.

The end result, The Blue Dragons Mix Tape, was one of eight different products and services showcased at the school’s “Big Sales Night,” held in early April. The culminating event of an eight-week afterschool unit using entrepreneurship to sharpen academic and personal skills, the “Big Sales Night,” raised $606.50 for two local charities. About 70 to 80 people — mostly Freeman school parents, family members and friends — attended the event.

“It was a lot of work, but it was so much fun,” said Kate Potts, the school’s YouthQuest site team leader. “The kids learned how difficult it can be to run a successful business, and as a plus, we were able to work in the idea of charity and how hard people work to help other people.”

Each of YouthQuest’s seven, multi-week sessions during the school year is designed around a theme, which gives the afterschool staff the opportunity to exercise creativity around an established lesson plan, Potts said.

“We’re able to learn what works and what doesn’t from the experiences of other afterschool teams and try some different approaches. The theme helps guide our planning and keeps us from getting into a rut,” she said, noting that Freeman’s final eight-week session will be devoted to the planets and space travel.

“We try to work with our classroom teachers to weave afterschool activities with classroom activities,” Potts continued. “This session was particularly useful for our younger students, who are learning about coinage and currency. Before we brought each class together to outline their business plans, we spent some time learning how to count money, how to make change. Our older students learned about profit, and why businesses need to be profitable.”

Although they considered creating “play money” that students could use to start businesses and purchase products and services, Potts and her eight-member team of learning guides ultimately decided that the rigor of creating and marketing actual products and services would encourage teamwork and challenge students’ creative and decisionmaking skills.

“We ended up with some interesting businesses — a waffle restaurant and art gallery, jewelry, photography and school supply stores, a lemonade stand and CD and DVD sales.”

Freeman is one of 15 elementary and middle schools in Flint and Genesee County offering free YouthQuest afterschool programming. Supported with an annual grant of $3 million from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, YouthQuest is managed by the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce. Taking a whole-child approach to learning — using engaging and experiential activities to connect with and expand lessons learned during the regular school day — the program serves approximately 2,800 children each year, according to Rhetta Hunyady, the chamber’s vice president.

A graduate of the University of Michigan-Flint’s School of Education, Potts began working for YouthQuest while doing her student teaching. After graduating, she stayed with the program because of the inventive teaching opportunities offered through afterschool.

“So much learning comes from exploration, from working through problems and making mistakes — afterschool offers that kind of creative time for teachers and more importantly, for students,” she said.

Initiative seeks “green” for Michigan’s economy, environment

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:36:10 GMT

BY DUANE M. ELLING

Greenforce helps community colleges grow “green” jobs training, campus sustainability
Programs are designed to meet worker and industry needs, help communities attract businesses
Engaging employers and local partners is key to program success

Juliana Goodlaw-Morris is seeing green — and helping a number of community colleges in Michigan do the same.

Goodlaw-Morris is campus field manager for the National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Campus Ecology Program and regional co-lead for the national Greenforce Initiative, launched in late 2010.

The initiative is building the capacity of community colleges in Michigan and five other states to help workers, including underserved adults, gain the education, training and experience needed to succeed in sustainability-related or “green” careers. The schools also are exploring ways to strengthen environmental sustainability on and around their campuses.

“Community colleges are often experienced at developing programs that reflect the unique needs and interests of local students, residents and employers. Greenforce builds on those strengths to create positive environmental and economic impacts at the local level and beyond,” said Goodlaw-Morris.

Greenforce is coordinated by NWF, the largest private, nonprofit environmental conservation education and advocacy organization in the U.S., and Jobs For the Future (JFF), a leading national policy, research and action organization that seeks to accelerate education and career advancement for disadvantaged young people and adults. Both are longtime Mott Foundation grantees.

The initiative is funded in Michigan by a two-year, $250,000 grant from Mott to NWF. The Bank of America Charitable Foundation is supporting the initiative’s work in Illinois, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Mott’s longstanding support for industry-specific — or sectoral — workforce development strategies in its home state and across the country has totaled $95.9 million since 1978. The funding for Greenforce also reflects the Foundation’s interest in the expanding role of community colleges in connecting workers to the changing labor market.

Goodlaw-Morris notes that Greenforce already has “sparked positive outcomes in Michigan, with the schools taking the initiative’s goals and really running with them.”

One example is Lansing Community College, which teamed up with nonprofits and businesses in the state’s capital for “Restoration Works.” The project is helping students learn green construction and home-energy auditing techniques while they restore two vacant, tax-foreclosed houses. The properties are being retrofitted with energy-efficient windows, doors, insulation and fixtures, and eventually will be made available as affordable housing to area low-income families.

On the state’s east side, St. Clair County Community College has developed both a walking tour and interactive online virtual tour that teach students and visitors about the school’s use of alternative energies, such as geothermal, solar and wind, and its bioswale system, which uses landscaping elements to remove silt and pollution from storm water runoff. The college is also developing videos to highlight how those sustainability activities and the school’s related academic curriculums provide hands-on learning and job training for students.

Among community colleges on the state’s west coast, Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor is developing a job training program and working laboratory that will use large steel freight containers to create the exterior shells of eco-friendly, functional spaces for people to work and live. The concept has gained steam in the U.S. and abroad in recent years, with architects and engineers exploring ways to reuse an estimated 300 million shipping containers sitting empty in freight yards around the world.

As with many of the Greenforce projects, local partnerships and collaboration form the backbone of the Lake Michigan College initiative, which is guided by a communitywide alliance of representatives from the public and private sectors.

“The whole concept has just captured the imagination of the professional community and the public,” said Ken Flowers, department chair of Technologies at the college and director of the school’s M-TEC workforce training program.

He says the local group, which came together in late 2011, is “imagining a modularized coursework approach, where students develop core competencies through classes already offered by the college and where their specialized training needs are met through the addition of a few new courses.”

Gloria Mwase, program director at JFF, says Lake Michigan College’s integration of existing academic offerings is an example of how schools can create innovative green programs that meet the needs of students, employers and communities “without having to completely reinvent the wheel.”

She notes the growing exchange of information, models and support among the community colleges participating in Greenforce in Michigan and around the country.

“The initiative is helping the schools to connect, to see what each other is doing, the lessons they’re learning and the successes — and challenges — they’re facing,” said Mwase.

“It’s giving them a comfort level where they can call up one another and ask, ‘How did you get that started?’ That has far-reaching potential for their ongoing success.”

Greenforce also is helping the schools position students and employers for future trends in the country’s economy, says Stephen Lynch, senior project manager at JFF and, along with Goodlaw-Morris, regional co-lead for the initiative.

Such efforts in Michigan include a series of customized labor market reports, currently in development, that identify emerging industries that need workers with green skills; define the unique skill sets sought by those sectors; and analyze the expected supply and demand for trained workers.

That information, says Lynch, will help the schools “develop job training programs that prepare students for positions across multiple industries, making them more marketable to a variety of employers and, ultimately, making the region more attractive to businesses looking to locate near pools of ‘green-skilled’ workers.”

Goodlaw-Morris says that the next year of Greenforce will see the participating colleges, including those in Michigan, deepen their efforts to engage employers and other partners in their respective green programs. The schools also will continue exploring opportunities to enhance sustainability efforts on their campuses and in their communities.

That ongoing work bodes well for Michigan’s economic and environmental future, she says.

“The programs being launched and enhanced in the state through Greenforce are helping to promote good-paying, family-sustaining jobs; business opportunities for employers and entrepreneurs; and positive impacts for the environment. At the end of the day, everybody wins.”

Editor’s Note: A complete list of the colleges participating in Greenforce is available on the Greenforce Initiative Web site.

Yazeed Moore discusses Mott’s Vulnerable Youth grant portfolio

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:34:27 GMT

For the past eight years, Yazeed A. Moore has been responsible for grantmaking within the Mott Foundation’s Vulnerable Youth portfolio. A member of the Foundation’s Pathways Out of Poverty team since 2002, Moore recently sat down with Ann Richards, a member of the Foundation’s communications staff, to discuss his portfolio.

Mott: “Vulnerable youth” is a pretty broad label. Can you clarify what it means in terms of the Mott Foundation’s grantmaking?

Yazeed A. Moore

Moore: We use “vulnerable youth” to describe our focus on young people ages 16 through 24 who have dropped out of school or who are at-risk of dropping out. To put it a little differently, our grantmaking targets young people who are over-age and under-credited for their grade level.

Our strategy is to identify and support interventions that will help students who are off-track for graduation re-engage in school and work. We also fund a number of national organizations to examine and advance policies at the federal, state and local level to identify barriers that prevent students from re-entering the school/work pipeline — which then helps in designing and testing these interventions.

Mott: What has the Foundation discovered through its grantmaking to assist over-age, under-credited students?

Moore: We’ve learned a lot over the past several years, but I think the biggest “aha” moment for us was gaining a better understanding about why kids drop out. The field has become a lot smarter about identifying indicators that can predict whether students are on the right path toward eventual graduation — and we know now that it’s not always academic problems that keep them from finishing school. That knowledge has helped us shape better responses and provide a better system of supports to help these students achieve. And it’s important to remember that we’re talking about a lot of kids — of the roughly four million high school students who are supposed to graduate each year, only three million will receive diplomas. That’s a million kids we’re talking about. And the numbers are even greater if we include young people who are a bit older and are not in school or working.

Mott: Since 2008, Mott has supported the development of Schools for the Future, a competency-based, alternative approach to completing high school. What prompted you to grant the R&D funding to create this model?

Moore: Schools for the Future represents a recovery model for young people who have dropped out or are performing significantly below grade level, meaning they’ve been retained two or more times in elementary or middle school. The most exciting part of this model — for me — is that it accelerates learning in a meaningful way by blending a foundation of highly targeted classroom activities with a full range of online and community-based learning opportunities where students learn both inside and outside the classroom. It rewards and emphasizes the mastery of concepts, not time.

Several years ago, the Mott Foundation helped fund the development of Diploma Plus, another alternative education model. Through the years, I stayed in touch with Ephraim Weisstein, who developed that model, because we both have an interest in pushing the envelope — in terms of developing educational strategies that address the very diverse needs of vulnerable kids. Ephraim used Mott funding to take that next step and thankfully, his research resulted in a good product, one that other funders are interested in supporting. Schools for the Future is now being piloted in Jacksonville, Florida, and, next year, in Detroit.

Mott: Tell us a little about your own background and how you landed at Mott.

Moore: I started at the other end of philanthropy — fundraising in higher education. After working in higher education for about three years, I went to graduate school to complete a Masters in Public Affairs at Indiana University. In order to complete my program of study, I needed an internship in the public sector. Being somewhat familiar with the work of foundations in general, I wrote to Mott because its mission really spoke to me. I was lucky they offered me an internship which turned into a job after I graduated.

I grew up in Gary, Indiana, and attended typical urban, inner-city schools from K-12. Again, I was lucky. I had a mother who encouraged me and a guidance counselor who saw something in me and got me involved in the Upward Bound Program. There were countless others who helped me see that a better life was possible through hard work and a little luck.

All through my life, I had the support of different networks — advocates, mentors, counselors. Unfortunately, the kids who are the beneficiaries of the programs Mott funds don’t always have these supports in place. I’m very fortunate to work for an institution that values better educational experiences for students who don’t get the luck of the draw or who just need a second chance.

Schools for the Future offers alternative path for at-risk students

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

It takes courage and discipline to go back to high school after you’ve fallen behind or dropped out, but for those students willing to give it another shot, Schools for the Future provides an alternative path — a path that accelerates learning by rewarding competency as opposed to time spent “in the seat.”

Across the country, high schools are failing to graduate students. According to a recent article in The New York Times, only seven of ten ninth graders in the United States today will earn a diploma. And while 80 percent of white and Asian students graduate from high school, only 55 percent of African American and Hispanic students achieve that goal.

In Duval County, Florida, the public school system has taken up the challenge of educating its students most in danger of dropping out, committing $1.7 million in private and public money to pilot Schools for the Future.

Designed for “over-age and under-credited” urban students, Schools for the Future targets students who are two or more years behind their classmates in age and skill-level, according to Ephraim Weisstein. He developed the model in collaboration with the School & Main Institute at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, with multi-year support totaling $450,000 from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Starting in eighth grade — a year earlier than most alternative high school models — Schools for the Future offers instruction through 75-minute blocks of learning. Academic courses are broken down into 30-day modules — “chunk-size bits of learning” — that enable students to move forward at their own rate, based on mastery and not on age or grade.

“What happens in each of those 75-minute blocks is different for every student,” said Weisstein, an education consultant who has worked with at-risk students for more than 30 years.

Schools for the Future builds on Diploma Plus, a program Weisstein designed and piloted in the mid-1990s.

“Most alternative models are based on a two- or three-year period. We start at eighth grade because that gives us the three to five years needed to stage the academic and social supports our students need to graduate and go on to college.”

“The more time we have the better; many of our students are reading at a fifth-grade level when they enter. Many of them arrive with lots of social and emotional issues. There are huge gaps in learning and maturity that need to be attended to,” Weisstein noted.

Schools for the Future also takes advantage of technology, using mobile devices to blend digital curriculum with face-to-face instruction, group and individual study, and coaching.

“Students learn through a mix of activities — seminars, normal classes and online work. At the end of each 30-day period, they are assessed for mastery and either move forward or, if additional practice is needed, assigned additional, supplemental activities,” Weisstein said.

Ultimately, each set of learning modules adds up to a credit-bearing course that will count toward district and state requirements for graduation. Schools for the Future is a college preparatory model, and students are required to pass the same comprehensive assessment tests as their counterparts in more traditional high schools.

“Our goal is to have our students pass the ACT college entrance exam with a score of 21 or higher,” said Weisstein. “We understand that many students who score a 17 or 18 on the ACT will perform well in college, but we want to push the bar higher.

“We’ve used that benchmark to develop our curriculum, working backward from a score of 21 to map the academic steps that need to be taken to meet that goal.”

Because many students who have fallen behind in school also struggle with social and emotional issues, Schools for the Future also works to “accelerate” maturation, says Weisstein.

“We work to build both the cognitive and affective skills of our students. We rely on a positive youth development approach to build students’ social and emotional IQ. It’s the second big piece contributing to the model and it’s the glue that is used to build identity and unity within the school. It’s critical to the school culture.”

According to a recent article in The New York Times, only seven of ten ninth graders in the United States today will earn a diploma.

A positive and supportive school culture is key to academic success, particularly for schools serving at-risk students, says Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, Inc., a non-partisan, nonprofit think tank created nearly 20 years ago to develop ideas to help transform the state from a factory-based to a knowledge-based economy. Through its high school accelerator program in Detroit — where seven new models are already operating — Michigan Future will open a Schools for the Future pilot in September, 2012. The accelerator has an overall goal of achieving systemic high school education reform through the establishment of 35 new high schools by 2017.

“One of the important lessons we’ve learned over the past 10 years working with urban high schools is that the culture of the school — first among educators and then the kids they teach — trumps everything,” said Glazer.

Michigan Future selected the Schools for the Future model for a couple of reasons, most significantly its focus on at-risk students.

“It’s the only model we’ve reviewed that specifically targets this population,” said Glazer.

Schools for the Future also offers “one of the most comprehensive, innovative approaches to teaching” that Glazer’s group has reviewed.

“They started with a clean sheet — and they worked to discover exactly where urban kids are when they enter high school. They’ve done a lot of thinking about curriculum, about pedagogy, about teaching. Their approach — which uses blended learning, lots of teacher training — is very thorough, very impressive.”

While there are policy challenges to implementing the model, Glazer is confident that the State of Michigan will approve the necessary waivers granting credits based on demonstrated proficiency rather than time spent in the classroom.

“No one is targeting at-risk kids like Schools for the Future,” Glazer said. “It’s a very powerful model.”

Spotlight: Building Michigan’s economy is focus of $850,000 grant

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:21:49 GMT

About the Grantee

The Prima Civitas Foundation, launched in 2006, is working to help Michigan residents and leaders explore, understand and realize a new economic vision for the state.

Headquartered in Lansing, the organization’s efforts include developing community partnerships around economic and workforce initiatives; capitalizing on existing resources to advance the success of communities and businesses; and aligning educational and training programs with jobs in emerging sectors.

Since its founding, Prima Civitas has received nearly $3.9 million in grants from the Mott Foundation.

Purpose of the Grant

The 2012 work of Prima Civitas will focus on four major programmatic activities designed to build economic strength in mid-Michigan — including Mott’s home community of Genesee County — and throughout the Great Lake State. Activities will focus on:

The Flint Area Reinvestment Office, which is helping the Genesee County community develop a regional strategy for strengthening economic recovery. That work includes nurturing public and private collaborations around economic issues, and helping local organizations identify, access and use federal and state funding to support economic initiatives.
Statewide entrepreneurship and talent initiatives, including Moving Ideas to Market, which is growing the entrepreneurial spirit in Michigan through educational partnerships between entrepreneurs, support organizations, schools, colleges and universities.
Community and economic development efforts, such as helping the Northern Transformation Alliance — spanning 14 counties in the northeast corner of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula — re-envision the area and create strategies that will support a more prosperous region.
An international portfolio that includes the Great Lakes International Trade and Transport Hub. That initiative capitalizes on Michigan’s key position within the North American trade corridor by helping businesses in the state pursue import and export opportunities with Canada and Mexico, and capture part of the billions of business dollars that flow through Michigan between the three countries.

“The Prima Civitas Foundation, with support from Mott, is helping to draft a blueprint for Michigan’s prosperity,” said Steve Webster, CEO at Prima Civitas. “By engaging in programming at a community level, in regions, statewide and internationally, we’re ensuring that all of Michigan is working toward a sustainable, innovative and global economy.”

Learn more

The work of Prima Civitas was recently profiled in this news article out of Detroit.

Jack Litzenberg: Business ownership as anti-poverty tool

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:54:31 GMT

To many people working in the field of microenterprise in the U.S., Mott Senior Program Officer Jack A. Litzenberg is a legend. For nearly thirty years, his grantmaking at the Foundation played a fundamental role in the development and growth of a movement to help low-income entrepreneurs start their own businesses and lift themselves — and their communities — out of poverty.

Litzenberg’s work, including in the area of microenterprise, was recognized in 1994 with the Council on Foundation’s Robert W. Scrivner Award for innovation and creativity in grantmaking, the highest award made by the council to a grantmaker.

As he prepared to retire on January 31, 2012 from Mott, Litzenberg sat down with Communications Officer Duane Elling to reflect on the field to which he’d devoted much of his career.

Jack A. Litzenberg
What has fueled your interest in microenterprise?

Jack Litzenberg (JL): When I was five years old, my dad opened a small town grocery store — he put in a lot of long hours and the work was hard, but he was really proud of what he was doing and I was proud of him.

His experience showed me that owning a small business can give a person a very real sense of accomplishment and responsibility, which can carry over into every other aspect of their life.

That can be life changing, especially for low-income people. They come to realize that they have real potential and can work their way out of poverty. They cherish the fact that they own something and have earned it.

I also believe in the ripple effect of microenterprise. These small business owners contribute to their local economies and some create new jobs for others who need employment. The businesses become cherished parts of the community, helping to lift everyone up with a new sense of purpose and belonging.

What have been some of the milestone developments in microenterprise in the U.S.?

JL: One of the most significant is the growth in funder involvement and interest. In the mid-1980s, it was largely the Mott and Ford foundations that were funding microenterprise as an anti-poverty strategy in this country. Today we know of roughly 80 funders — including foundations, banks, government agencies and other partners — helping to support the field.

Other major advances have been the launch of organizations and programs dedicated to demonstrating the model’s effectiveness and helping to strengthen and advance the field. This includes the Microenterprise Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination (FIELD) at the Aspen Institute, and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity — both are longtime Mott grantees.

That infrastructure, built over time, helped lay the foundation for the exciting new work being done in the field today.

Can you share an example of that new work?

JL: A major one is the development of microenterprise and microfinance programs on college campuses. The college students bring a new level of innovation and entrepreneurism to the field, exploring new ways for helping low-income people start and grow their businesses, as well as unique financial products and services for those small business owners. It’s creating a new generation of people who embrace microenterprise as an effective strategy for lifting people out of poverty.

What would be your ideal vision for microenterprise in the coming years?

JL: I’d like to see it become even more widely adopted and supported as an anti-poverty strategy, for it to be seen as essential to the national “toolbox” of approaches for helping low-income people create new lives for themselves and their communities.

I’d also like to see greater numbers of low-income individuals owning and operating their own businesses, discovering their skills and capabilities, and making their own unique contributions to our society.

Ultimately, I want to see low-income people in this country get to a place where they aren’t low-income anymore. Microenterprise can help accomplish that.

Jack Litzenberg reflects on workforce development

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

For nearly three decades, Mott Senior Program Officer Jack A. Litzenberg helped lead the Foundation’s efforts to provide low-income, low-skilled people with the employment tools and opportunities to succeed in the country’s changing labor market.

His work was recognized in 1994 with the Council on Foundation’s Robert W. Scrivner Award for innovation and creativity in grantmaking, the highest award made by the council to a grantmaker. In 2010, Litzenberg’s efforts related to the creation of regional skills alliances in Michigan were acknowledged by state officials, who presented him with a certificate of recognition.

Jack A. Litzenberg

As he prepared to retire on January 31, 2012 from the Foundation, Litzenberg sat down with Communications Officer Duane Elling to share his thoughts about workforce development and his 28 years in the field.

What notable trends are you seeing in workforce development?

Jack Litzenberg (JL): One of the most exciting is that so many states are adopting sectoral employment strategies. By helping lower-income people receive the job training and credentials that employers are looking for, sectoral embraces the employer community. Employers embrace it back by hiring and promoting those workers, and putting them on career pathways, which can mean economic stability for families. We have a growing body of evidence that the model works, which has really sparked interest in it as a strategy.

What concerns me most about the future of workforce development is federal workforce policy, especially cuts in funding for job training. We know that training works, that it matters, and that a trained and skilled workforce is essential to the country’s economic future. Cutting federal support for that training means that fewer people will be ready to meet the needs of employers and more will be at risk of falling into poverty.

Much of your recent grantmaking at Mott has linked workforce development with community colleges. How is that work helping to shape the field?

JL: What I like about community colleges is that as educational institutions, they grant recognized credentials to people who complete the required coursework and the training. Because they have a local focus, they’re in a position to tailor that coursework and training to meet the unique needs of local employers. Community colleges are also suited to working closely with neighborhood-based organizations to provide the life and social supports that lower-income people may need to complete their education and earn their certification.

Exploring and strengthening the roles of educational institutions in workforce development will be very important to the field’s future, because education is the tool that lifts people out of poverty – it has been a major theme of our anti-poverty grantmaking at Mott.

What is the role of philanthropy in advancing the field of workforce development?

JL: I think that research and design is our most important role. We can try out different ideas and strategies, see what works and what doesn’t, and use those findings to develop new models.

Sectoral employment is a good example of this. Mott helped develop the model, test, prove it and share it with others. As a result, sectoral is now more widely understood and embraced as an effective way to meet the needs of workers and employers.

What philanthropy cannot do is take the place of government. If every foundation put all its money for workforce development into a single pot, we still wouldn’t have enough resources to make effective programs available to every person who needs them. Government needs to stay in the business of supporting job training, which, as I noted before, is something I’m very concerned about.

What has been the greatest satisfaction from your 28 years in the field?

JL: Without question, it’s been supporting Mott’s grantees as they’ve developed and provided programs that helped low-income people escape poverty. It’s knowing that we’re helping to create lasting change for those families, keeping kids out of poverty and helping to stabilize their communities. It’s knowing that you’re benefiting people in the future based on the work that you do today. Doing this type of work is the best job in the world.

Study charts alternative staffing successes

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

By SHEILA BEACHUM BILBY

In mid-2010, a jobless DaRell Moore was selling his own blood plasma just to survive when a friend told him that Emerge Staffing, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, was looking for workers.

He walked into the agency, which helps place hard-to-employ adults in temporary and temp-to-perm jobs, the next morning.

Alternative staffing seeks to meet the needs of both workers and employers.

“I was working that same day, and I’ve been working ever since,” said Moore, 28. He is now a permanent, full-time employee at Synovis Surgical Innovations Inc. of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he recently passed the one-year mark as a production assembler. He had worked several temporary jobs through Emerge before he started at Synovis in November 2010.

Moore’s experience is not unlike that of many former alternative-staffing workers contacted in a follow-up study for the Alternative Staffing Demonstration (ASD). The Mott Foundation has given $8.9 million in support of the demonstration since its launch in 2003.

Almost half — or 49 percent — of 855 workers contacted through the study still were employed six to eight months after landing a job through an alternative-staffing organization (ASO), according to a new report, “Finding the Right Fit: How Alternative Staffing Affects Worker Outcomes,” on the demonstration.

Of those participants who maintained employment, the study found that 48 percent to 86 percent — depending upon the ASO studied and local labor market conditions — held full-time positions. In addition, 42 percent to 74 percent reported receiving some type of employer-sponsored benefit coverage, such as health insurance and paid time off.

Out of more than 50 ASOs nationwide, researchers at the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston worked with four sites for the demonstration to find out what happens to these workers over time. [Read related press release.]

“We really didn’t know what to expect, partly because of the recession and partly because this is a population that has difficulty with employment,” said Françoise Carré, the center’s research director.

The study found that, while workers’ hourly wage rates don’t change much when they move from temporary to more permanent jobs, they still take home more in their paychecks because they work mostly full time and have steadier work hours. About half were able to “roll over” a temporary job assignment into a permanent position, notes the report.

Importantly, says Carré, many workers saw these improvements despite facing multiple barriers to employment, such as lack of a high school diploma or driver’s license, a disability, or a prior criminal conviction.

Other potential barriers to employment are being the recipient of some form of public assistance, such as welfare, food stamps or Medicaid — all of which can be used as markers of poverty — and, where child care is scarce, having to deal with daily parenting responsibilities.

Once job candidates are assessed and screened at an ASO, they may be referred to various community resources for help with particular needs, whether it’s housing, transportation, child care or completing high school.

Many of the workers are placed in entry-level jobs, ranging from clerical work, building services, maintenance and landscaping to assembly work. The fees the ASOs earn for placing workers are plowed back into helping prepare even more workers for job placement.

“These workers need a ‘broker.’ They need somebody to convey what they’re good at,” said Carré, noting it’s easy to get knocked out of the applicant pool in today’s online job application systems.

If ASOs are part of an effective anti-poverty strategy by connecting people to jobs, the report also confirms that they help fulfill the social missions of businesses that want to make a difference in their communities while meeting their business needs.

Kevin Johnson, a Synovis production manager, said it wasn’t difficult to choose Emerge over a for-profit conventional staffing agency, whose corporate headquarters are out of state.

What gave Emerge an edge was “the fact that it was nonprofit, community-based and trying to take hard-to-employ people and trying to help get them a job,” Johnson said.

Each ASO adapts the alternative-staffing model to serve its own mix of hard-to-employ adults. This helps them better prepare workers for assignments in advance of their first day on the job. Carré says that many business customers indicate that they use ASOs because they know the programs will send somebody who has been properly screened.

“There is some level of support and some level of follow-up,” she said.

Synovis has taken on eight workers through Emerge. They started as temporary and after six months to a year, as business expands, they are given full-time status.

“There are some that just need a break,” Johnson said. “DaRell is a perfect example of that.”

Moore typically works 80 hours in a two-week pay period, but sometimes clocks even more hours with overtime. Recently, he became eligible for full medical benefits.

His work history includes a variety of jobs, such as janitor and check sorter for a bank. When the economy soured, he picked up odd jobs cutting grass, detailing cars and cleaning gutters.

He made it into a second year of classes at a local community college, but left when he couldn’t pay tuition any longer. He hasn’t abandoned his college dreams. But now he has his own apartment with his girlfriend, and he will become a first-time father in January.

“It was a very stressful two years without a job and losing school at the same time,” said Moore, who now feels a “weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

ASOs participating in the Mott-funded national demonstration are Emerge; FirstSource Staffing of Brooklyn, New York; Goodwill Staffing Services of Austin, Texas; and Suncoast Business Solutions/Goodwill Temporary Staffing of St. Petersburg, Florida.

National event shines “Lights On Afterschool”

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Through rallies, parades, open houses and tours, more than 7,500 schools and nonprofits across the U.S. will call attention to afterschool programs – and the important role they play for children and their families – at the 2011 Lights On Afterschool event October 20.

“The things that make afterschool programs so beneficial, fun and diverse are showcased each year during Lights On Afterschool,” said Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant.

Afterschool activities provide ample hands-on problem-solving opportunities.

“This is a critical time to let local, state and national leaders experience afterschool programs firsthand, and see afterschool youth having fun with math, showing off their science skills, performing on-stage, making healthy meals and more,” she continued. “With so many programs facing budget cuts, we need to shine a spotlight on afterschool programs, and remind our leaders that these programs are key to keeping kids safe, inspiring them to learn, and helping working families.”

In the Foundation’s home community of Flint, Michigan, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Flint will host its 9th Annual Steak Dinner October 20, honoring a long-time friend of afterschool programs, Congressman Dale E. Kildee, according to Executive Director James Gaskin.

“It’s great timing for us,” said Gaskin of this year’s Lights On Afterschool celebration. “The dinner is our biggest fundraiser – and this year, we are honoring Congressman Kildee with our Patrick McInnis “Community Hero” Award. He’s been a tireless advocate for afterschool programs locally and nationally,” said Gaskin of the 18-term Flint-area legislator.

The Afterschool Alliance, which works with more than 25,000 afterschool partners like Flint’s Boys & Girls Club, launched Lights On Afterschool 12 years ago to raise awareness of the importance of high-quality programs and advocate for more afterschool investment, says Ursula Helminski, vice president of external affairs for the Afterschool Alliance, a long-time Mott grantee.

“It’s important to take the time each year to celebrate the good work that’s being done by schools and nonprofit organizations that offer safe, high-quality programs for children,” she continued. “And it is equally important to use this opportunity to familiarize the public, policymakers and legislators about the increasing need for these programs.”

Across the country, one in four children and teenagers – 15.1 million youth – take care of themselves after the regular school day ends, according to the Afterschool Alliance. In the 2011-2012 school year, approximately 8.4 million children will participate in safe, supervised activities after school – while the parents of another 18.5 million say their children would participate if a program were available.

To focus attention on the need for more high-quality afterschool activities, the Afterschool Alliance created Lights On Afterschool in 2000. Originally celebrated in 1,200 communities, the national event has grown to include more than one million participants.

A planning kit, available free at the Afterschool Alliance Web site was developed to help local programs recruit volunteers, create media materials and showcase their Lights On Afterschool activities.

The Afterschool Alliance grew out of a partnership between the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education to support the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative. The recipient of almost $12 million in support from the Mott Foundation, the Afterschool Alliance serves as the national voice for afterschool and expanded learning opportunities, working with national, state and local entities across the country to increase access to quality, affordable afterschool programs, particularly for those from underserved populations.