Tulsa World Features Initiative’s CareerAdvance Program

The Tulsa World ran a feature last Saturday on the CareerAdvance program being piloted by the Tulsa Initiative (slash Innovation Lab) here at CAP. A little taste:

CareerAdvance is offered to parents who have children enrolled in early child-care programs for lower-income families at the Skelly and Disney Early Childhood Education Centers.

The program is to help parents be successful in a career path leading them to economic self-sufficiency and allowing them to better provide for their children, said Monica Barczak, director of the department running the program.

The agency selected a focus on jobs in the health-care field because it offers good-paying jobs in relatively high-demand.

The thing I’ve been happiest with in implementing this program with our Career Coach, Tanya, has been the support participants offer to each other. Or in Misty’s words:

“The girls in the class are a good group because we’re like family, a lot of sisters,” White said. “We all support each other and don’t want anyone to fail. If anyone is having a problem we all pitch in to get them through it.”

I had the privilege of sitting in on Misty’s interview, and it was truly heartwarming to hear what the program means to our participants – “an answered prayer.” But I should say that it’s them – the 15 mothers that work so hard – and our partner providers (TCC, Union Public Schools, and Workforce Oklahoma) that truly make CareerAdvance a success. Thanks to them, and thanks always to the George Kaiser Family Foundation for supporting our vision of bringing a cutting-edge workforce development program to our Early Childhood Program families.

Go read the whole thing at the Tulsa World website.

Tax Time

So, it’s tax time around here. If you’ve been to our headquarters or any of  our tax site locations – you’ll notice that there’s a lot of excitement and activity going on. CAP’s Free Tax Prep Program is in motion and is one of the largest programs both in refunds returned to the community and number of clients served. Families that are eligible take advantage of much needed dollars in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

Serving roughly 17,000 tax clients takes almost 200 volunteers. Among these, are Americorps volunteers which we have been able to utilize for the past 10 years. This year’s  11 member team come from all over the U.S. and were New Orleans doing reconstruction work before this assigment. On average, our Americorps NCCC volunteers contribute over 1,500 hours of time over six weeks which make up roughly 12% of all of CAP’s free tax prep volunteer hours. They do this because they want to make a difference and are to be truly admired. They’re living in a recreational center right now and have a couple of freebies to some games and places to eat. Other than that, they work, eat, sleep, and do it over again. If you run into one at a tax site or if they’re in there standard uniform of work pants, combat boots, and long sleeved shirts with the Americorps logo, take a moment to thank them for their service!

If  you have an annual incomes of $50,000 or less or are single with incomes of $40,000 and less, come on over. If you know anyone, please let them know. Again, for a listing of tax site locations – click here.

PLANiTULSA Final Comments

PLANiTULSA will present a final draft of its comprehensive planning document on Tuesday, January 19. The presentation begins at 6pm at the Central Center at Centennial Park, 1028 E. 6th St.

You can read chapters of the draft plan, which include land use, transportation, economic development, housing, and parks and open space, at www.planitulsa.org.

Audience members will be able to express their opinions throughout the presentation using “clickers.” It’ll be just like sitting at home on a Tuesday night, except you won’t be able to change the channel!

Webcast: Budgeting the Next Generation

Thursday’s Child launches its 2010 year with a webcast on public investments in children and families:

New research by Urban Institute and Brookings Institution analysts reveals how children — collectively and at different ages — fare in the federal budget and how federal and state spending mesh. Drawing on these forthcoming reports, a panel of distinguished experts will begin a vital and timely exchange on how the nation can, amid severe fiscal and budgetary challenges, make the wisest public investments in its children.

The webcast is January 14 at 8:00am Central. Register here.

On an only mildly related note, did you know that “Thursday’s Child” is also the name of a David Bowie song. A lyric sampling:

Throw me tomorrow
Now that I’ve really got a chance
Throw me tomorrow
Everything’s falling into place
Throw me tomorrow
Seeing my past to let it go
Throw me tomorrow
Only for you I don’t regret
That I was Thursday’s child

Really not sure how that inspired the Urban Institute series. (Or was it the other way around?)

Public Input – OK’s Race to the Top

Gov. Henry’s new Chief of Education Strategy and Innovation, former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor, will be hosting a public meeting in Tulsa Tuesday December 15th at 5:30 at Fulton Technology and Learning Academy. Taylor will be presenting ideas to be included in the state’s “Race to the Top” grant application and seeking input from the public. The grant application will focus on four required areas:

College/work-ready standards and high-quality, valid and reliable assessments

Pre-kindergarten to higher education data systems

Grant teachers and leaders

Intensive support and intervention for the lowest-performing schools

According to the Tulsa World, Tulsa’s meeting is one of 6 taking place Monday through Wednesday this week around the state.

The Fulton Technology and Learning Academy is located at: 8906 E. 34th Street in Tulsa.

Savings and Upward Mobility

Among low-income children, those born to high-saving parents are more likely to move up from the bottom income quartile than children of low-saving parents. This is just one of the findings in the recent report “A Penny Saved Is Mobility Earned: Advancing Economic Mobility through Savings” by the Pew’s Economic Mobility Project. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the report found that greater savings also increases the chances of upward mobility for the parents themselves. At the same time, the report explains how government policies and programs that incentivize savings seldom go to low-income households and asset limits on public assistance programs discourage savings among low- and moderate-income households. The report concludes with recommendations on policy changes to encourage savings. Examples of recommendations include (1) revising asset limits to exclude vehicles, EITC refunds and other refundable credits, retirement accounts, college savings accounts, savings bonds, and Individual Development Accounts; (2) encouraging direct deposit of benefits and facilitate opening of basic bank accounts; and (3) expanding financial education and counseling.   

 “Seventy-one percent of children born to high-saving, low-income parents move up from the bottom income quartile over a generation, compared to only 50 percent of children of low-saving, low-income parents.”

“Among adults who were in the bottom income quartile from 1984-1989, 34 percent left the bottom by 2003-2005 if their initial savings were low, compared with 55 percent who left the bottom if their initial savings were high.”

 A Penny Saved Is Mobility Earned is available for download along with other reports at www.economicmobility.org.

Kendall Whittier Lights On

Looking for a festive neighborhood event tomorrow night? Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood will be having their annual Lights On! celebration tomorrow from 5:30-7pm at Kendall-Whittier Square at 1st and Admiral. A lot of revitalization efforts have been going on in this area, if you haven’t been in awhile. This area is also the home to some great non-profit resources such as Tulsa Educare, Tulsa Girls Art School, Circle Cinema, Kendall-Whittier Library Branch, Kendall Whittier Inc, and the future home of the KWI Fab Lab.

For more information on this event, click here for the Tulsa World article.

Inspiration in an unlikely place

Homemade soccer ball in Kenya c. 2005- http://tiny.cc/9wXN0.

This past week I attended the Southwest Regional Leadership Forum hosted by the Sarkey’s Foundation in Norman, OK. I honestly didn’t expect to come back completely re-energized and inspired to take on the world… but I did. One thing I’ve learned recently from the book Made to Stick by the Dan Heath and Chip Heath is that there is elegance in brevity and simplicity. So rather than give you my entire 2-day rambling brain dump, I am going to share some links and  insights with you concerning the key speakers. I need to save some other stuff for other posts! 

Blogging the National Network of Sector Partners National Conference

Washington, D.C. – This week I’m at the national conference of the National Network of Sector Partners. The conference will cover a wide range of topics related to industry driven workforce development initiatives, including sector case studies, policy and systems change, green jobs and other emerging industries, and program sustainability. Dinner Thursday night is being keynoted by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. If you want to help me choose some sessions, take a look at the list of workshops and tell me what you’d find most interesting. (Obviously I have ideas of my own so no promises to take your advice!)

I’m hoping to do some “tape-delayed” blogging (as opposed to live blogging – don’t think I have the attention span to listen and blog at the same time) throughout the conference so be looking forward to that.

To help you get excited, here’s an article on successes among the ultimate low-skilled population – house pets – in attaining college degrees. Online learning is really breaking new ground! Like in the human world, I think the main problem here is insufficient focus on emerging job sectors and attainable career pathways. On the other hand, George the Cat successfully joined the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming. Wages for that profession sound promising!

—

Image used under a Creative Commons license from flickr user inmasera.

Creative Kids in Oklahoma

I recently learned about a group of amazing kids in Howe, Oklahoma who use technology to harnass their creative talents.  They’re learning by creating content for presentations that they share over the internet.  They’re also taking “virtual fieldtrips,” visiting places around the country and the world that they might never get a chance to see in person.

This kinds of hands-on engagement has taken them well beyond the typical textbook learning.  And it reminded me of what the FabLab concept (which  Diama and Micah have written about ) is all about – give kids a creative outlet, and they’ll take advantage.  It’s inspiring and exciting to see it, and I think as a community we should work towards ensuring ALL kids have access to these creative opportunities.

You can see what the Howe students have created – they’re so good that they won First Place in the Kids Creating Community Content contest in 2008 and Third Place in 2009.