DePaul University’s Office of Applied Innovations (OAI) has joined forces with four prominent Chicago service agencies to move at least 1,300 individuals off the welfare rolls and into self-sustaining, productive careers by the end of the year 2000. The program, called Bright Future, is the newest and most ambitious of OAI’s wealth of training and employment projects targeting Chicago’s critical need communities.

Bright Future is aimed at the construction, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing and service industries. The partnership is funded through a $5.3 million 30-month grant from the U.S. Department of Labor awarded in summer 1998. It is the first of Chicagoland’s DOL grant recipients "out of the gate", with over 180 successful placements and promising retention rates reported to date.

OAI’s current collaborative partners in "Bright Future are:

• Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) with its REDI and CHA Works programs for the construction trades, including access to pre-apprenticeship programs with local trade unions;

• New City YMCA/LEED Council, with special focus on job development and new joint venture opportunities in manufacturing and related trades;
• The Chicago Lighthouse, enabling persons with visual impairment to obtain and retain employment;

• Alternative Sentencing Approach Program (ASAP), the only building repair and maintenance program in the city with a Step-Up designation by HUD.

OAI’s programs and initiatives are models of successful partnerships between the private and public sectors. OAI’s Community Kitchens, a joint venture with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and HOST/Latino HOST programs are prime examples of successfully integrating job-readiness and lifeskill curricula with employer-driven, job-specific training and internships.

"Our supporting employers—Hilton, Hyatt, The Knickerbocker, Marriott, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Little Sisters of the Poor, and many others—are the lifeblood of these programs," says OAI executive director Tipawan Reed. "These companies have a long history of successful hiring and retention with people who have completed our training programs."

Reed said these forward-thinking employers provide replicable workforce development concepts for other industries and role models for OAI’s clients. "As a result, we are forging new partnerships with a number of prominent Chicagoland entrepreneurs and industry groups whose workforce development initiatives are in synergy with our mission and goals," she said.

Among the growing number of active supporters are: Alliance Relocation Services, Allied Van Lines, Xerox Business Services, ServiceMaster, True Green-ChemLawn, Chicago Building Structures, Heritage Bank, South Shore Bank, Bonheur Development Company, Entertaining Company, Walgreens, and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

OAI also manages the Illinois Employment and Training Center (IETC), a One-Stop facility at 3500 W. Grand Ave. It is funded by the Mayor’s Office of Employment and Training and adds yet another resource to the Bright Future collaborative.

All of OAI’s programs and services support DePaul University’s urban, Catholic and Vincentian mission of lifelong learning and equal access to quality education for members of Chicagoland’s marginalized communities.

Contact: Tracy R. Poyser,312-362-6060