rience or confidence, family responsibilities with lack of childcare or transportation or lack of community awareness and scope of local ABE programs and services. ABE programs must be sensitive and strategic in addressing these common adult student barriers while focusing on providing high quality instruction.
Local businesses, post-secondary training programs / colleges, local K12 schools, churches, cultural centers, and community support services can increase access to ABE by directly supporting or referring potential students to ABE. These organizations and community members help open accessibility to ABE programming by increasing community awareness and / or becoming ABE partners.
Educating adult learners in our communities provides the entire community with benefits that go beyond achieving a static goal of earning a high school credential. Our community organizations and members can expect results from ABE programs that meet their needs, such as businesses who are seeking employees who have basic skills, job related training, communication skills, and social skills( West Virginia Adult Basic Education, 2009).
Metro North ABE Works to be Accessible
Deliberate efforts are made to leverage funding and partnerships that foster maximum student and community participation. Metro North ABE provides services to over 4,000 adult learners through year-round programming at conveniently located sites during daytime and evening hours.
Metro North ABE currently hosts ABE programming at district / school locations, a church, three local jails, the
Anoka County Human Services Center, two colleges and leased community space. We also periodically offer services at a homeless shelter and several libraries.
We have class sites placed in a variety of community settings across our partnering school districts. Some Metro North ABE communities are urban in nature; others are suburban or on the fringe of rural. The co-location of the Blaine Learning Lab with the Anoka County Workforce Center in Blaine results in many referrals and strong learner traffic.
There is a high concentration of English language learners at both the Columbia
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Heights / Fridley and Blaine sites. Because of the larger numbers of learners attending these sites, managed intake, assessment and enrollment is implemented as a successful model of delivering services.
Our sites in St. Francis and Elk River have active drop-in sites to reflect the more sparsely populated area they serve. They offer a full range of classes from ABE to ESL and beginning literacy to college prep in a“ one room school house” model with minimal managed enrollment options.
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Instruction at all the Metro North ABE programs is relevant to adult learners and community needs. Within literacy, math, ESL, or basic skills instruction learners are improving digital literacy skills and professional or soft skills. Instruction supports students’ successful transition to employment, post-secondary education or training, and / or increased engagement in the community.
Local programs partner to offer instructional support to career training in health care, food service, manufacturing, office administration, and childcare. Sites also offer classes that help students understand and navigate such things as getting a driver’ s license, applying for a job, understanding how to support their children in school, or applying for college. Methods of instruction are based on best practices to enhance adult learning. Staff are well trained and have access to materials that support adults with unique learning needs.
Outreach efforts are directed to maintain community partnerships and referrals. Consortium and local outreach is designed to ensure that the availability of ABE services is well known in our local communities by potential students, potential volunteers, support agencies, student referral sources, local workforce centers, businesses, and post-secondary education / training organizations. Together, we can do more for our adult learners and community as a whole.
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SPRING LAKE PARK # 16 FRIDLEY # 14 COLUMBIA HEIGHTS # 13
Resources:
Minnesota Adult Basic Education.( 2017) Annual Report retrieved from www. mnabe. org.
West Virginia Adult Basic Education.( 2009). Marketing, Recruitment, Retention, and Followup in ABE Programs.
Metro North Adult Basic Education | Ph: 763-433-4200 | www. MetroNorthABE. org OCTOBER 2017 5