Community type
Medium-sized city surrounded by rural county; population 694,000.

Location
Louisville, Kentucky

Geographic region
South

Partners
Jefferson County Public Schools; Workforce Education Initiative; Kentuckiana Works (local Workforce Investment Board); Louisville Free Public Library; Jefferson Community College, Jefferson Technical College, and other postsecondary institutions; local labor unions; state department of adult education and literacy; community- and faith-based organizations; local government; local employers; and others.

Population served
Adults needing adult basic education, English literacy, family literacy, GED preparation, welfare-to-work transition training; and workforce training services.

Lessons learned

• Collaboration formulated around “mutual self-interest” mean that all partners see the partnership as essential to meeting their own goals as well as community needs.
  
  
• Overlapping governance structures foster communication. Partners serve on each other’s advisory councils and task forces, which helps keep all abreast of progress and problems.
  
  
• Flexibility in combining resources allows the partners to reach more learners.
  
  
• What makes the partnership work: a clear, shared vision of community needs and a strong commitment to meeting them; a local tradition of partnerships; a dynamic leader and broad community support; creativity in combining funds and resources.

Partnership highlights

• In 2001-02, 2,319 adults received their GED diplomas; more than 10,400 participated in adult basic education; and more than 1,300 received English literacy instruction. Some 35,000 adults participate yearly in adult education activities in Jefferson County.
  
  
• Through Louisville’s fall 2001 Free GED Testing Campaign, 1,504 took the free test during a three-month period and 70 percent passed.
  
  
• With support from the state Department of Adult Education and Literacy, JCPSAE created an in-school GED program in three high schools for students at risk of failing to graduate.
  
  
• The recently formed WE Initiative is an umbrella group composed of Louisville’s “movers and shakers” that will help coordinate partnerships to achieve measurable goals in education and workforce development.
  
  
• Community college and adult education faculty team-teach, share computer resources, and encourage students to move from adult education to community college, and vice versa, as their needs dictate.

Resources
Jefferson County Public Schools; Kentucky Department of Adult Education and Literacy; state Council on Postsecondary Education; Louisville Free Public Library; Kentuckiana Works; local labor unions; Community Block Grants; the state Cabinet for Families and Children; and in-kind support from various organizations.

Contact

Julie Ross Scoskie, Director
Adult and Continuing Education
Jefferson County Public Schools
Jacob Annex
3670 Wheeler Avenue
Louisville, KY 40215
(502) 485-3400
jscoskie@adulted.win.net