One Stops

At my previous Literacy Council job, we did not use our local one stop as a resource for our adult students with Low literacy. However, We did use a workforce readiness curriculum that highlighted skills that could be used in the workforce and community life.

Thinking back, one reason that we did not refer our students to our One stop may been because we knew that our students lacked the communications skills to articulate their needs, accommodations, or interests to the One Stop staff. It would have been great to establish a partnership between the local one stop and the Literacy Council. I think that this would have been helpful to our students.

Comments

Hi, Felicia -

Thanks for sharing your experience teaching a workforce readiness curriculum and the challenges in connecting learners with your One Stop. Your concerns about students lacking the communication skills to articulate their needs, accommodations, or interests are legitimate ones. For others facing the same concerns, here are a few suggestions to try and establish a partnership with your local One Stop. First, many One Stop programs have a website. Introducing your students to this resource to make them familiar with the types of resources available could make a good addition to your workforce readiness curriculum. It may also be possible to have a representative from your local One Stop come to your program and meet students in a familiar location. This may help to establish personal relationships that would support learners on paying a visit to their One Stop in the future. Lastly, you may also explore options for taking learners on a field trip to the One Stop and having a tour of their facilities and program offerings.

What are others' ideas for building partnerships with their local One Stop?

Best,

Mike Cruse

Disabilities and Equitable Outcomes Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com