On October 4th, Ray Marshall Center Director Chris King joined Monica Barczak, Director of the Innovation Lab at the Community Action Program (CAP) of Tulsa, in presenting a program update for CareerAdvance® to the Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development in Oklahoma City. CareerAdvance® is an innovative career pathway program, which Center researchers helped design in 2008-2009, that helps train the parents of Head Start and Early Head Start children for healthcare careers that will provide them with the opportunity to lift their families out of poverty. CAP Tulsa administers this program that is now funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Professions Opportunity Grant program.
King and Barczak presented the most recent achievements of the program, highlighting how much the program has grown since its inception in 2009. In cohorts 1 through 7, 261 people completed applications, of which 145 started the first activity. In cohort 8 alone, 74 people completed applications and 37 began the first activity. Early indications suggest that the model produces success, although rigorous evaluation results are still in the making as part of the evaluation being directed by Dr. King and Dr. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale of Northwestern University. The Ray Marshall Center has produced several reports evaluating the implementation of the program, and educators and policymakers across the country are increasingly intrigued. Council Chair Steve Hendrickson pointed out that such programs are great examples of what Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin plans to foster in her new role as incoming Chair of the National Governors Association.
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