Amazing Grace for Good Works

Listen to first hand account of amazing grace and redemption: After receiving a 15 year sentence for the murder of another man, Gerald Trotter is now working with the man responsible for that sentence, Bill Gibbons. At that time, Bill, was the prosecuting attorney, now Bill and Gerald are on the same team. Operation: Safe Community and it's "FED UP" initiative is responsible for this unusual alliance. Responsible for a new set of compelling radio, television and digital public service advertisements, the Fed Up Campaign is being touted as a groundbreaking gun crime prevention program. On today's episode of Funky Politics, Bill and Gerald, will visit with the crew to discuss the initiative and why its been effective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVfPbnBUKAg

REPOST: It Really is Good Works

This was originally posted in 2015 and needed this morning as a reminder of the importance of the basic things of life. Enjoy discovering your purposed work!

https://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/2015/03/it-really-is-good-works_4.html

Equal Works

DC & MD get Real, Right & Funky on the Women's Tribute Show with our guest hosts activist and workforce consultant, Latanyua Robinson and Memphis Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalist, President, Siobhan Riley.  Enjoy The Show!
http://thefunkypolitics.kudzukiannetwork.com/funky-politics-radio-womens-tribute-showwomens-march-to-metoo-kudzukian

Knowledge Works

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out 

(Proverbs 18:15)

February has emerged as one of my favorite months to spend time online and on social media. During Black History Month, I get exposure to many dynamic stories that force me to evaluate what I was taught during my public school education, but most importantly, to seek additional knowledge and learning for myself. My professional background is not in education, but I have been spending a considerable amount of time in public schools in support of career readiness and workforce development. Last week, I heard a teacher’s reference to Margaret Ammond’s definition that the purpose of education has evolved from producing a literate society to producing a learning society (http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_update/eu201207_infographic.pdf).

Referring back to February and Black History Month: It was during this time last year that our church used the weekly announcements to focus on Education by introducing the congregation to stories of the Rosenwald Schools. During the early twentieth century, Julius Rosenwald, an executive of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, partnered with Booker T. Washington to build quality schools to educate black children in the south. The purpose of that Sunday morning program was to solicit people to contribute to preserving the history of these schools. To learn more about the initiative, visit https://savingplaces.org/places/rosenwald-schools.

That evening, I searched the related Fisk University archives (http://rosenwald.fisk.edu/) and proudly learned that I was a benefactor of the Rosenwald investment in education. My mother graduated from Holman School, one of three segregated high schools built in Arkansas County, Arkansas for black children. After desegregation in 1970, Holman remained a critical part of our community, yet there was a lot about the history of the school literally in my back yard that I did not know. Desiring to learn more, I came across this link that gave more insight into the legacy http://www.abandonedar.com/holman-school/.

Fast forward to present day and the education reform debate continues. I am witnessing the pendulum shifts from a focus on humanities, to STEM-centric, to the current STEAM emphasis. Without jumping into politics, it is safe to say that the current Education Secretary has not eased or enhanced the debate on what the country defines as quality education. At least today, education is still viewed as a human right. At this point, I am more grateful that as a parent and a lifelong learner myself, I am not limited to what is taught in schools, nor does curriculum limit my family and community’s education. Education begins at home.

Stay tuned and follow the journey of education engagement, economic development, and entrepreneurial readiness. We value your input. Feel free to comment, or drop us a line at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. 

Greatest Works

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4)

2018 has started as a season of new beginnings. We are eight years into the Latrobe journey, recognizing a genesis of new starts and revised focus. While we continue our efforts in career readiness and commercial readiness, an area of need that I never imagined addressing and humbly serving is with youth workforce development. Here’s the backstory:

I got my first job in high school because I enrolled in Distributive Education Clubs of America, commonly known as DECA (https://www.deca.org/). Back then, a major component of the course and benefit to students was that we were required to obtain work experience. In exchange for high school credit hours, students were expected to have gainful employment in our local community, working 15-20 hours per week. My personal motivation was two-fold: 1) I wanted to work to get out of the school day early. 2) I needed to work to earn my own money toward the purchase my first car.

Fast forward thirty years: Latrobe have been contracted to assist our local school district with career navigation and career readiness implementation. The high school subscribes to Jobs for America’s Graduates, JAG (http://www.jag.org/) as an evidence based workforce development model as a preventive measure against dropping out for at-risk youths. Thirty seven core work competencies are grouped into six outcome clusters (http://old.jag.org/model_competencies.htm): 

• Career Development Competencies (6) 
• Job Attainment Competencies (7) 
• Job Survival Competencies (7) 
• Basic Skills Competencies (5) 
• Leadership and Self-Development Competencies (5) 
• Personal Skills Competencies (7)

In the middle, I am curious as to how an entire generation of children missed out on the importance of the high school work experience as an element self-sufficiency and growth. I say that because as 2018 began, I got a call from one of my former high school teachers asking for a personal favor in coaching her granddaughter, a recent college graduate, who has little work evidence on her resume to support the return-on-investment from her education to sustain her salary expectations. The grandmother remarked that these children graduate from high school with fewer life skills than we (our generation) learned in high school (how to obtain, survive, maintain, and develop, and thrive while working).

Instead of blaming the children, I challenge economic development (education, business, and entrepreneurial communities). How are children expected to develop the basic work skills if not invested in and required to obtain said skills as youth? The capstone of the semester long project with the school district is a community sponsored summer jobs program with a purposed intent to match the needs of the business community with the desire of students to earn valuable work experience by

• Promoting entry level jobs for up to 100 students who participate in career readiness
• Marketing job opportunities for local business owners who want to support workforce development
• Providing a potential pipeline of students and job opportunities for the JAG program

Stay tuned and follow the journey of summer youth workforce development in our community. Education, economics, and workforce development all go hand-in-hand (Marilyn Smith, SETX Workforce Solutions). If you have suggestions about what has worked in your experience, feel free to comment, or drop us a line at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. 

#MeToo! and Sexual Assault in the Workplace

Assessing Good Works

Technology has changed the way we live and work. Instead of meeting with someone in-person, we Google Hangout or conference call; instead of calling on the phone, we e-mail or text. Communicating is easier than it’s ever been, but less human interaction has produced people who don’t know how to communicate and who don’t know how to interact with others.

LATROBE’s Career Readiness portfolio, as the name suggests, ensures you have the skills you need to get started in your profession or to advance in your profession. Whether you’re an individual interested in career growth or a leader of managers or directors, your success will depend, in large part, on how well you communicate and interact with others.  

Technology is also changing the workplace as automation is slowly phasing-out workers. As robots are programmed to have technical skills (i.e. hard skills), they lack the ability to communicate, lead, or work with people. As a result—and this is true based on what I’ve seen—communication skills and social skills have become important again.

According to a January 6, 2017, article in Forbes, in which 100 CEO’s, human-resource managers, and job recruiters were polled, nearly all of them said they value soft skills more than they value hard skills. Why? The reasoning was, if an employee can collaborate, communicate, and lead, they can be taught how to do the job.

How are your social skills—are you at ease interacting with co-workers and superiors? It’s important you answer this question honestly because having poor social skills will impede your ability to advance at work. If you’re not sure how good your social skills are, you can always ask someone, but with so much at stake, I recommend an in-depth, scientific, knowledge-based approach.  

LATROBE knows the value of personal and professional growth, so if you’re interested in finding out how effective your communication and social skills are, we offer the Human Asset Imaging® Inventory, a 128-question assessment that measures communication and social skills, indicating where you are strong and where you are weak. Our assessment is unique because in addition to measuring aptitudes, attitudes, perceptions, and skills, it also evaluates knowledge and understanding of what is required to successfully work alone or as part of a team.

If you’re in charge of managers or directors, our assessment can help you too. It will quantify interpersonal knowledge and learning progress and allow you to gauge and manage monetary and time investments. By using the assessment to measure knowledge and identify gaps, you’ll be able to target training dollars and build sustainable development plans. We also provide group reports to help identify training needs.

The Digital Age has produced increased convenience and deteriorating social skills. Don’t let social awkwardness or poor communication skills keep you from realizing your potential. Get started today by purchasing an interpersonal skills assessment at http://hai-institute.com/product/hai-inventory-feedback/. 

Commercial Readiness

LATROBE’s Commercial Readiness portfolio helps business owners make their businesses more effective, more efficient, and more profitable. This is a great time of year to consider these things because 2018 is around the corner, and by setting your business goals now, you’ll be able to hit the ground running. So if you want to grow your business, here are some things to consider.

Plan

It’s common for business owners to go into business without first deciding what they want to accomplish and how they plan to accomplish it. Instead, these business owners—and I may be describing you—simply hope to sell their products and services and make money, and while this is a common business practice, it’s hardly an effective one.   

Business success requires planning, and you need a strategic plan, which lists your goals and explains how you will accomplish them. Your strategic plan includes strategies, and there is a comprehensive (overall) strategy for your business and strategies for each area of your business. Each strategy has accompanying goals, with short-term strategies (1 year) and long-term strategies (3 to 5 years).  

Your strategic plan keeps you focused on what’s important. You’re faced with a never-ending list of tasks to complete every day, but by keeping your goals in mind, you’ll know which activities will help you meet your goals and which will not, so it will be obvious which tasks you should spend time working on. Your strategic plan will answer questions like this:

• What are my profit-margin goals?
• What do I want to do next month? Next year?
• What is my sales goal?
• Which customers am I pursuing?
• Which customers provide the biggest profit margin?

Get Help

Nearly every small business (more than 96%) is run by one person: the owner. These are single-person businesses. The remaining businesses (less than 4%) are employer businesses, which means they employ at least one person in addition to the owner. Here’s why it’s important that you scale-up and become an employer business.

Annual revenue for single-person businesses averages $18,000; for employer businesses it’s $1.5 million. Scaling-up and expanding your business capacity simply means you’re not doing everything yourself. It’s not possible for you to go out and sell and market—and be the face of the business—then be expected to do all of the work. You can only do one thing at a time, so when you’re working on one task, another task isn’t getting done.

Do what you do best and get others to do the rest. If a business owner is an introvert, is it a good idea to have them make presentations before groups of people, with them sweating and stammering because they’re nervous? Or would it have been better for them to have spent that time doing what they’re good at while having a polished speaker make the presentations?  

If you want to grow your business, your strategic plan might have questions like these:

• How do I scale-up to become an employer business?
• What talent or expertise do I need on my team to offset what’s lacking?
• Who do I need on my team to help me accomplish my goals?

Conclusion

If your business strategy is selling as many of your products or as much of your service as possible, you don’t have a business strategy; and if you take pride in being a jack-of-all-trades, you’re probably not making much money. As 2017 comes to an end, create a 2018 strategic plan and assemble a team. Your business will need both to realize its potential.

Finally, have you ever said you’re going to take your business to the next level—but don’t know what level it’s on now? We can help. Few business owners view their businesses objectively, but in order to grow your business, you have to do just that. FLITER^® is a business operations and management assessment we administer that will assess where your business is and show you how to take it where you want it to go. To learn more, visit http://www.fliter.biz or  https://www.latrobellc.com/services.html.

Career Readiness

In this blog, while I’ll be talking about high school students trying to attend college, and community-college students trying to attend four-year colleges and universities, I’ll be talking to their parents. As a mother of a 17-year-old who’s considering college, by becoming familiar with the college-application process and aware of its all-important deadlines, I’ll be able to ensure my son does what he needs to do. When he needs to do it.    

Career readiness, as it pertains to your child, means preparing them for their career, and it requires that they answer some important questions. What kind of work do I want to do? Where do I want to go to school? Career readiness also requires that they attend a (two-year) community college, four-year college, or university.

More Tests

The 2018-2019 college year begins in late August (of 2018). If your child will be attending a four-year college or university, they’ll probably be required to take the ACT (American College Test) or SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). These tests determine how strong your child is in math, reading, and writing (for the ACT) or in English, math, reading, and science (for the SAT).

It’s a good idea for your child to take the ACT or SAT more than once because while they’re nervous before taking it the first time, knowing what to expect, they’re relaxed the second time and often perform better. In addition, while some schools require students to include all of their ACT and SAT scores in their college applications, most schools only require students to include their highest scores.

Prepare

There’s a simple way for your child to perform better on the ACT or SAT—take practice tests. There are books with practice tests in them, and there are free online practice tests. Remember: The school your child wants to attend will receive thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of applications from students around the world. Your child will be competing with these kids. If you want to increase the likelihood your child gets accepted, make sure they prepare for the test.   

One Isn’t Enough

Imagine your child has had their heart set on becoming a Volunteer since middle school—what happens if their college application is rejected! Since the University of Tennessee (UT) is a public university, if they live in Tennessee, this probably won’t happen. But if your child wants to attend college out-of-state, or if they want to attend a private school (e.g., Vanderbilt), they’ll face tougher competition, and you’ll have a higher bill.  

UT accepts 76% of enrollment applications; Vanderbilt accepts 11%. UT’s in-state tuition is about $12,000 per year, and its out-of-state tuition is almost $31,000; Vanderbilt’s tuition (in-state and out-of-state) is almost $45,000 per year. My point? Have your child apply to more than one school, especially if they want to attend a private school.

How Will You Pay for It?

Your child has decided where they want to attend college, and they’ve scheduled the ACT or SAT (or both)—now you have to figure out how you’re going to pay for college. If you’re like most parents, you and your spouse can’t foot the entire bill. Fortunately, you don’t have to.

There’s lots of money available to pay for college: grants, scholarships, and student loans.

Grants place more weight on need, and scholarships place more weight on academic performance. Some scholarships, though, are reserved for specific groups. The Tennessee Society of CPA Scholarship, for example, is only awarded to students who are Tennessee residents majoring in accounting. Students often assume they need lofty grade-point-averages to qualify for scholarships. They don’t. So make sure your child researches them.

The financial aid packet is critical, and it should be completed as early as possible because most schools award aid on a first-come-first-served basis. The earlier your child applies, the better their chance of getting money and the better their chance of getting more money. Also, by applying for financial aid early, if your child has left some important information out or has made a mistake, they’ll have time to submit the correct information before deadline.

Clock is Ticking …

The financial-aid application period began on October 1^st (2017), so if your child will need aid for the 2018-2019 school year, which will begin in August of 2018, have them begin applying now.

What’s great about the process beginning on October 1^st is, you can include your 2016 tax return in the application. Since you probably earned more in 2016 than you did in 2015, and will earn more next year than you will this year, by using your 2016 return, you’ll have less income (than you’ll have next year) to report. As a result, your child will have greater financial need and will probably receive more aid. 

On-the-Job Training

Companies are desperate for talent, and in their scramble to attract high-achieving students, they’re offering yet another way to help your child pay for college. Work-versed learning programs like apprenticeships and internships are more popular than ever, allowing students to earn money while getting valuable work experience. This experience looks great on a resume, but more importantly, it gives the student an opportunity to decide if this is the kind of work they want to do for the rest of their life.

Conclusion

You don’t have to be rich for your child to attend college. There’s plenty of money out there to pay for college, but to get it, your child has to take the initiative and do the work. I’ve attached two links that will help. BetterMakeRoom.org, which is Michelle Obama's program, helps students prepare for college. Steps2College.org has information about everything your child will need to know as they prepare for college, and it’ll make the process easier by sending text messages to notify you both about upcoming deadlines.

Reforming Good Works

October 31^st, 2017, was the 500^th anniversary of Reformation Day, a movement that brought greater religious freedom and greater freedom of expression. The Reformation decreed that we are saved by grace alone, and our faith—not our works—is evidence of our belief. In light of this, I felt compelled to begin communicating again to explain what’s happening with LATROBE and show how our journey has evolved.

For the last two years I have worked with the Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce on an initiative to connect people to educational opportunities and employment opportunities in Memphis and throughout the Mid-South. The project focuses on career education and technical education through our two-year community college and short-term certification training.

This project provided insight into what Memphis needs, and it made us rethink LATROBE’s role in the community. We’ve expanded our services and now specialize in three areas: career readiness (workforce development for hard-to-place individuals), commercial readiness (business development for individuals who need help starting their own businesses), and, our newest specialty, campus readiness, which is safety and security development for organizations and institutions.

I have over 25 years’ experience in engineering, manufacturing, and workforce, and James, my vice president and husband, has over 25 years’ experience in education, safety, and security. His education and experience is invaluable, though, because it has taught him how to get hard-to-place people (i.e. people with backgrounds) back to work.

LATROBE isn’t alone in providing training and job-placement—the Arkansas Workforce Center, Tennessee Workforce Development Center, and local non-profit organizations provide similar services and training—but our advice to anyone we meet is this: Find an organization that provides case management. Why? Because you need someone to help you navigate the process. If you’re returning to the workforce but don’t have a qualified, skilled, experienced professional helping with your job search and serving as your advocate, you likely won’t find a job. 

We use assessment tools to determine unique interests and skills, and knowing that it takes more than training to land a job, we also hold your hand and walk with you every step of the way. LATROBE isn’t a staffing company. It’s part of the community.  We use technology, proven practices, and community relationships to help you get the job you want. Stay tuned for future posts on how we use technology to find solutions for job seekers through our Career Readiness portfolio.

Most parents would love for their child to be able to attend an elite college or university. Our son has the grades to attend any school in America, and we can afford to send him. But, he might tell us that instead of going to college, he wants to get his certification. We are okay with that because James and I know getting a college degree isn’t for everyone. In fact, in today’s job market, you don’t need a degree to jumpstart your career.

Earning a college degree is a great way to start your career, but as a community, we need to get back to being entrepreneurial and find ways to start our own businesses. Sometimes, learning a hands-on skill (i.e. a trade) teaches what you need to know to start your own business. LATROBE’s Commercial Readiness program can help you with this very thing.

I’m from Stuttgart, in the Arkansas Delta. James and I moved to the Memphis area when he, an associate warden at the federal prison in Forrest City, was transferred to the region. We relocated near Memphis because it put us squarely in the middle of everything: what’s happening in eastern Arkansas, and what’s happening in western Tennessee.

Memphis is our home—we’re going to retire here—so we’ve decided to get more involved in community affairs. LATROBE allows us to do that. By training job seekers, introducing them to employers, and helping individuals launch their own businesses, not only are we helping make the Memphis economy stronger and more diverse, we’re doing the same for the entire Mid-South economy! And, we’re helping reform our community. 

Good Works

Test!

Doers of Good Works

Be doers and act on what you hear

(James 1:22)

We are raising an amazing son. We take great pride in exercising our parental bragging rights. Here’s the backstory:  Yesterday was the first mentoring session of #CodeRoadClub, so my husband and son attended with me in support. While the program targets young women, as a mom, I saw it as great opportunity for Q to gain exposure to careers in technology. To learn more about women in Memphis, Nairobi, Nashville, and Toronto meeting weekly in a live classroom for educational, cultural, and social exchanges, visit http://www.memphisworks.com/coderoadclub, 

or follow us as I live tweet on Saturdays from @LTR_Latrobe_Mfg to @CodeRoadClub.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry…life happened and we began the day with a few minor technical difficulties that were quickly overcome by a remarkable support team from all four locations. I privately joke that I live with #ProblemSolver #1 and #2, so in their true nature, their immediate response was to jump in to fix the technology fails. While the girls from different parts of the world took turns introducing themselves and learning valuable information about the importance of networking and demonstrating abilities, my son was purposely listening and looking for opportunities for improvement. When the program ended, he quietly sent me a text that he had “a few ideas to help this work a little better.” Then he proceeded to network by starting a conversation with one of the coders/presenters who recommended building solutions that solve problems.

I woke up this morning to find a professional email from my fifteen year old son that laid out his suggestions for improving the technical production of future sessions. With no edits, I forwarded his email to Mary Hayes, CEO of Engage Learning Systems, and the braintrust behind #CodeRoadClub. She responded with a prompt thank you note to Q, with an offer for him to attend next week’s session as a part of the tech support team, lol! Of course, he accepted!!!

When I wrote about #CSforall in last week’s blog post, I knew that I would begin mentoring with the #CodeRoadClub as my contribution for exposing local young women to this aspect of STEM education. What I did not anticipate was how this act might impact or benefit my own son.  Nor did I expect his level of engagement or participation or excitement about a Saturday morning project.  As a parent, I am most proud that instead of criticizing imperfections in a process, he took professional actions to offer solutions to make something good better. He’s a doer. How are you incorporating technology into your educational, cultural, or service projects? Let us know by commenting or sending an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

BASIC Good Works

In the beginning was the Word…

(John 1:1)

January 30, 2016 for me will be one those days committed to memory: Where we you when you heard the announcement from the White House on a specific initiative to prepare the next generation of technology leaders? In his weekly address, the President announced plans for a $4 billion investment, stating: We have to make sure all our kids are equipped for the jobs of the future. (To view the full statement about Computer Science for All, #CSforAll, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-iY3-otk4).

The meaning and application of computer science has transformed since my first introduction in the 80s. When I signed up for my first computer class, I did not fully understand what that meant. Keep in mind; this was prior to the days of the majority of families in our community having a home computer. I do not remember touching a computer until I was in high school, so I thought the course I signed up for was to teach me the basic skills of using a computer. I had no idea that BASIC was a programming language that I was expected to learn to solve problems.

Through high school and college, I managed to push through languages foreign to me like BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, and TURBO C because they were required courses for my engineering major. I refer to them as foreign languages because although I mastered writing IF/THEN/ELSE statements (with and without syntax errors), the problems we were solving had no real life application in my real world experiences. After gaining work experience, I began to understand the relationship and dependence on foundational computer science programming:

Hierarchy of Programming Languages

In my current workforce readiness initiatives, I often get pushback from parents and elders for suggesting that kids enroll in manufacturing or industrial programs of study. For them, manufacturing has a connotation of being a laborer, without regard for the technology required for process or product improvement. What I have found is a lack of awareness of the computer science basics necessary throughout the value chain of machining or automation or robotics, etc.  Just as in the beginning was the Word, the beginning of value creation rests on equipping our next generation of technology leaders to solve problems using computer science. How will your community participate in #CSforall?  Let us know by commenting or sending an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Speaking of Good Works

…speak those things which are not, as though they were…

(Romans 4:17)

I am a firm believer that when you speak your desires into the universe, if they align with God Will, He begins to move things around in your favor. Two years ago, I challenged our son to participate in a 5k event with me and reminded him of the purpose of the races, to train to endure and complete. (For the entire blog post, read http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-light-of-good-works.html). Fast forward to now:  not only has every Saturday of this month been consumed with charity races, he currently runs for his high school cross country team. In fact, he’s at a midweek race in Batesville as I type this.

The words that resonate for me are to train to endure and complete. That’s how I am feeling these days about the workforce preparedness efforts in this region. Getting to the desired outcome is a marathon and not a sprint. If the work were easy, the problem would have been solved years ago. The more I learn, the more I see the degrees of systemic institutional and generational layers that must be penetrated.

The funny thing for me is that I find myself stepping out of my comfort zone of operating as process driven and leaning on my relational skills. For a self-proclaimed non-people person, no one could have ever impressed upon me that one day, I would be consumed by community relation activities and that my motivation could be summed up by this meme: I am not in this work for the income. I do this work for the OUTCOME…changing lives. The marathon analogy (to train to endure and complete) holds true if we have any hope of changing the systems and processes most impacting our desired outcomes of our workforce development efforts.

I wondered how I got to this place and started to examine my actions. I believe in the power of I AM. It is no coincidence that about two years ago, I began a morning routine of reciting a list decrees that I speak over my life. One of them is that I decree that I AM a community servant. In ways that I never imagined, I am witnessing God move some things around and open so many doors that I never knew existed.  What are you speaking over your life and your purposed work? What is your expected outcome? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Access to Good Works

…for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit…

(Ephesians 2:18)

I am learning the hard way to choose my words carefully: People hear what they want to hear. I made the mistake of making a general statement, that when heard by someone who did not want to receive the message, applied one broad statement to a whole population. My takeaway is that people often forget that they benefit and have access to opportunities simply because they were born or live under what society has normalized.

The word privilege sometimes has a negative connotation. The reality is that some groups do have certain advantages from membership in a specific social class. Personally, if I remove the most well-known thoughts of privilege (sex and race), in America, I benefit because I am

Right handed vs. left handed

Married vs. single / divorced

Christian vs. all other religions

Heterosexual vs. LBGPQA

Children vs. childless

Formally educated vs. informal

English speaking vs. other languages

Employed vs. unemployed

Aged +18<65 vs. under 18 or over 65

Full able body vs. differently-able body

To learn more, visit http://jpfarr.com/presentations/

Workforce is a new skill for me. My experience in job training was derived from internal employer sponsored programs. I am gaining a crash course in diversity and perspectives on how people gain access to alternative training programs available to the general job-seeking public. From the crowd who does not realize how privilege grants them access, I often hear spiteful comments about people looking for “free stuff.” The reality is that prospects looking to re-tool or re-train are not looking for a “handout, but a hand up,” to the same opportunities available to the privileged class.

I tend to view processes from my perspective and personal experiences, without thinking of access from the perspective of those who do not share the same privileges that I have. I am looking for a paradigm shift in how to help more people gain access to available training. In an attempt to produce better outcomes from our programs, I challenged myself to consider how to overcome some process obstacles from the perspective of my non-privileged status. For example, how could I find out about training opportunities if I did not have home Wi-Fi, or access to the internet, or a computer? Or how could I apply for a job if the applications (paper or electronic) are available in English only? Or how would I perform on a mechanical agility test if I were left handed?

My personal learning in workforce development has become a humbling experiment in not projecting my experiences onto anyone else. As hard or different as I thought my journey has been, I never realized how much access and privilege I have had simply because of membership into specific social classes. How are you improving access to training and job opportunities for the diverse populations in your community? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Profit for Good Works

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world 

and loses or forfeits himself?

(Luke 9:25)

I have a hard time believing that an organization can operate as profit motivated AND be genuinely committed to helping people and changing lives. As the saying goes, you cannot serve two masters. Devotion to one will take priority over the other because of human nature. If you disagree, I challenge you to educate me on an organization that has managed to do both, effectively helping the intended benefactors.

My experiences in workforce readiness have exposed me to a lot of generational poverty phenomena that I never knew existed. I thought that since I grew up poor, I had a baseline understanding of “the struggle,” that would allow my current middle class situation to be a bridge to inspire others of what they too could achieve. Wrong! My first mistake was not having a real understanding of the differences between poor and poverty. I thought we were poor because although my parents worked, there was never enough to cover our wants, so we always heard our parents praying for us to do/have better (education, jobs, homes, etc). The difference is that people living in poverty do not have the luxury to hope for tomorrow because they are trying to overcome basic needs (food, clothes, shelter, etc.) today. For a better explanation, visit http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-poor-and-vs-poverty-and-vs-scarcity/.

Living in the mid-south, I have become mindful of the economy driven by the poverty industry. I started paying attention after I was sarcastically informed that while agriculture and transportation/distribution are both leading industries, a close third is the poverty industry. While many people are quick to point out the profit margins from payday lenders, pawn shops, casinos, and lotteries, has any one questioned the motivation of many of the so-called not-for-profit organizations? In my opinion, I have seen a lot of government funded programs, written on the back of poor people, where the resources are not directly disseminated to the intended benefactors.

As I go about my purposed work, I find myself getting frustrated in trying to do the right things in workforce preparedness, but constantly battling bureaucracy that does nothing to help overcome generational poverty dynamics. This work is not as simple as merely providing training and helping people to find good works, or better jobs. There is a societal disruption out there waiting to be examined and executed. Can you help me to discover it? So I ask the same question that I posed earlier. Are there any examples of profit motivated companies genuinely affecting change to pull whole communities out of poverty? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Reconnect to Good Works

Most of my professional career, I have benefited from hiring students from tech schools, without actually visiting one. For the past two decades, many of the industrial technicians or maintenance personnel were graduates of programs like Ivy Tech, Augusta Tech, or Rosedale Tech. While participating in Leadership Beaumont, I briefly toured the welding program at Lamar Institute of Technology. Not until I became actively involved in workforce readiness did I take the time to get a holistic view of what today’s tech schools offer. This is not your 80s variety vocational training program…

Growing up, the closest post-secondary school in the county was the Rice Belt Technical Institute. The only people that I personally knew went for secretarial training. None of the graduates from my family ever gained employment using those skills, so I never even considered the school as an option for me.

Fast-forward to my first tour of modern-day workforce development training and I visited one of the local Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) campuses. The purpose of the visit was to understand the regional best practice for effective adult education that leads to real employment and advancement opportunities. The full-time programs range from twelve to twenty months to complete. The format is meant to simulate an actual workday, so students receive both classroom and hands on training, often dressed in uniformed attire.

The initial topic of connection that struck me was the cost. Between financial aid, the Tennessee Reconnect (http://tnreconnect.gov/), or the Tennessee Promise (http://tnpromise.gov/), most students can complete these program without building up long term debt related to loans. This model proves that retraining efforts are within reach for adults willing to commit the time to earn the certifications.

Walking through the various programs, another area of connection was the engagement of the instructors. Each was working alongside the students, demonstrating applied knowledge of the subject. When we walked through the diesel maintenance shop, the instructor was underneath the frame, but slid out to share information about student successes, employment opportunities, salaries, and his program’s wait list (there is a huge demand for his graduates, a testament to the workmanship he is instilling in his students). Unique to the TCAT model, instructors are incentivized by their program placement rates.

TCAT offers a wide range of technical career programs. To learn the details of the full-time courses offered in the Memphis area, visit http://tcatmemphis.edu/fulltime-programs. I suggest exploring the program details to learn about the contact hours, potential certifications granted, and most importantly, the gainful employment information. Since I was so impressed by the diesel technology program, here are the linked examples of the kind of data you will find:

http://tcatmemphis.edu/fulltime-programs/diesel-powered-equipment-technology

http://tcatmemphis.edu/consumerinfo/?program=memphis/Gedt-591

Be sure to click on the red consumer information tab, which provides details about the SOC Code, program success rates, and job placement rates. A 92% placement rate is best-in-class in my book!

I know the quality of the students and the value of this type of education from a professional perspective. As a parent, a real test for me will be how I feel about technical training programs personally if our son comes home and informs us that he has chosen this route to pursue his career goals, rather than going to a four-year college. What are your thoughts on the career opportunities afforded from technical certification programs? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Harvest Season & Good Works

The harvest is plentiful,

but the laborers are few.

(Matthew 9:37)

I attended a neighborhood block party in my hometown last Sunday. New Edition Day began in 2011 as a gathering of family and friends who lived and supported each other in our small community on the northeast side of town. It's hard to imagine 500 people in such a tiny area until you experience it for yourself. I saw many faces that I had not seen in 30 years. And for all the people who live in town and those who came home specifically for the weekend celebration, there were noticeable people missing: those who currently work in the rice operations supply chain. Why were those workers not present for the Sunday before Labor Day fellowship? In common local terms, it's harvest season.

On Tuesday, I toured a high volume assembly plant. Our guide explained that the operation was just beginning harvest season. Confused, because I equated harvest with agricultural industries, I asked her to explain harvest season. She shared that it's another way of saying peak season, that time of year when they ramp up production to meet the expected demand and orders related to retail shopping season. Out of curiosity, I began to research the connotation and various meanings of harvest season.

Apparently, harvest season is a term that relates back to the plantation economy, tied to mass production in agriculture. Historically, plantation crops included cotton, rubber, sugar cane, tobacco, figs, rice, kapok, sisal, and indigo. The longer a crop's harvest period, the more efficient plantations were (Boundless, 2015). Fast forward to the modern day use of the phrase, it has application in high volume production environments. In labor intensive operations, the additional labor hours required are covered by excessive overtime and temporary workers.

I am beginning to understand how the plantation economy and mindset still affects workforce readiness in the Mid-South. We have work to do to overcome generational deficits in workplace preparedness. Understanding that the shift from an agriculture economy to an industrial economy to the high-tech economy requires a paradigm shift at how we train and motivate the most important piece that impacts productivity and profitability: the direct labor. If not, we shall continue down the path of the more things change, the more things remain the same. What innovative or technology solutions are you introducing in your labor intensive operations during your harvest season? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Source: Boundless. “The Plantation Economy and the Planter Class.” Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 11 Sep. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/slavery-and-reform-1820-1840-16/the-old-south-121/the-plantation-economy-and-the-planter-class-645-6993/

Resources for Good Works

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.

Be inventive in hospitality.

(Romans 12:13)

I had one of those weeks where I submitted a monthly report that was underwhelming for me to publish. We had a lot of meetings last month that produced a lot of narratives. When I read over the document, there were a lot of “fixin’ to’s,” but very few, if any, quantifiable metrics. To know me is to know that I am process and goal driven. I must be able to report measurable progress of my works and activities over time. My immediate prayer: while working in the workforce readiness environment, please help me to never lose focus on the necessity to deliver a corporate solution.

In full disclosure, I did not come to that prayer request on my own. Shortly after pressing the send button to forward the progress report, I participated in a conference call. The topic of discussion was learning more of the best practices of other career readiness and workforce development program successes through the deployment of employer resource networks (ERN).

The primary goal of an ERN is to provide a cost-effective solution to reduce turnover and to improve productivity for the employers. The program especially targets the workforce who are employed, or underemployed, where life situations happen that mean the difference between getting to or staying at work, versus having to miss a day of work to resolve potential crises. ERNs are not benevolent programs or gifts. The model is designed so that “success coaches” are available in the workplace to guide employees to resources so that they do not have to miss work. The employer benefits by proactively investing in an on-site person who knows the local community services, preventing the supervisor or human resources staff from dealing with these matters. My take-away from the meeting was that productivity programs like ERNs must be treated like corporate initiatives, where the potential benefactors, employers, must pay-to-play and expect a measurable return on investment. To learn more about successful regional employer resource networks, visit http://schenectadyworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/West-Michigan-Team-ERN-Overview.pdf or http://www.ern-ny.com/.

On my drive home, I thought about the activities that we are engaged in and asked myself to answer the questions I challenge our team to consider everyday: What product or service do we provide that our customers/clients/partners are willing to pay a subscription or service fee to receive? How do we quantify that value? If we cannot clearly articulate measurable solutions in a monthly progress report, what good are we…? Our September time resources will be allocated differently and more effectively.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked for examples of what other communities are doing to meet the needs of job seekers that address generational deficits in finding gainful employment. The ERN model is a purposed solution for removing barriers that impact an employers’ productivity and profitability. Could you get the corporations in your community to buy into and deploy a proven pay-to-play resource? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com.If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

He Delivered Good Works

…my only aim is to finish the race and

complete the work the Lord Jesus has given me…

(Acts 20:24)

Every now and again, you get a call that takes you back to a simpler place and time. Yesterday, I was informed that another pillar from my childhood community was called home to glory. That news triggered thoughts of people who influenced our lives, simply by their presence.

If you ask anyone who lived on the north end of Stuttgart in the 70s or 80s about their postman, the answer is one of two names: If you lived on the east side of town, Mr. Thompkins was your mailman. If you lived on the west side, Mr. Spears delivered your mail.

My personal interaction with Mr. Spears began in fourth grade when we moved on to North Spring Street. Looking back, we lived on a section of the street with three local educators: Mrs. Austin, Mrs. Walker, and Mrs. Spears. (Thinking back, how ironic was it that the Thompkins family shared the same vocations: the wife was a teacher and the husband was a mail carrier. I guess those were the good jobs for power couples in our neighborhoods during those days)! I digress…

Back to Mr. Spears: I knew him as the mailman and our neighbor. He never said a lot to me, but his presence spoke volumes and commanded respect. I remember when our road was paved (yes, I am dating myself) and as kids, we moved our kickball or our dodge ball games from the back yards to the street because of the smoother surface, we were always careful never to allow the ball to fall into Mr. Spears yard. His grass was always cut to perfection, and no one wanted to do anything to cause his yard to look otherwise.

Life happened and we moved away from Spring Street, so I had not seen Mr. or Mrs. Spears in years. I am an avid reader of the Stuttgart Daily Leader, so last year, I was delighted to read that he was still active as a volunteer in the community (http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/article/20140919/News/140919531). All of those years of walking his route to deliver the mail had long term benefits. The community was still prospering on the good works of men like Mr. Spears.

Yes, Mr. Spears delivered the mail. For young people like me, his presence in the Stuttgart community and his work meant so much more. Rest on, Mr. Willie Spears—your work is done.

If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.