SHARING RESOURCES
Streamlining Services

The Adult Education Center and its partners continually look for ways to reduce duplication of services. Previously, for example, each of the five counties in North Idaho had its own Even Start program, and each provided childcare and transportation and conducted their own ABE instruction. Similarly, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation ran its own ABE program, as did the Center for New Directions, despite being just across campus from the Adult Education Center.

For a long time, these agencies and others only wanted the Adult Education Center to provide assessments and supplies. Now they coordinate services and share clients in order to stretch limited dollars and provide services more effectively. By streamlining services, the partners can use their own organization's funds for projects more closely tied to their missions. The Center for New Directions, for example, no longer pays for adult education services. Instead, it sends its students to the Adult Education Center and, as a result, can redirect its funds into providing more counseling and advising.