Workforce Development Center

www.safealternative.org

Background 

Our partnership with Safe Alternative Foundation for Education, Inc. (SAFE) focuses on the planning and implementation of SAFE’s new Workforce Development Center. SAFE identified there is an educational opportunity for many high schoolers who may not attend college and will soon be searching for other ways to enter the workforce. The Workforce Development Center recognizes the need for skilled labor in trade industries and strives to be the catalyst in the community to address these needs of those seeking employment opportunity and providing them with those opportunities; it will provide educational training to equip those enrolled with the necessary skills needed for an entry level job.

Model 

• Participants 11-17 Years of Age: SAFE will house a woodshop inside of the center which will be used to introduce middle school students to careers in the construction industry through vocational workshops. The center will also be used to teach math classes and how to apply those concepts into the real-world by using the woodshop. 

• Participants 18-24 Years of Age: SAFE will provide community-based resources, and opportunities to address three major barriers of skills training, transportation, and access which prevents residents from obtaining family supporting waged employment. 

2020 Success

SAFE provides afterschool, weekend, and summer learning educational opportunities through vocational programs that provide real world application as well as exposing students to the world outside of their community. Their growth, over the years, is to be celebrated. While SAFE began with just 12 students in their program, in 2020 that number reached an all-time high of 45.