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Initiative Launching Next Month: Group Wants Focus on Lifelong Learning

Posted on: Sunday, 15 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Joy Campbell, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Jan. 15--Greater Owensboro -- The Learning Community.

A group of community leaders is confident that in 12 to 18 months, that brand and the grass-roots actions that come with it will set Owensboro and Daviess County on a path to prosperity.

The search begins this month for a director to lead The Learning Community Initiative, with an official launch in March. The goal is to identify Owensboro and Daviess County as a place that values learning as a means to enriching and improving life.

"This is not an education project," said Bob Darrell, committee co-chairman, former Kentucky Wesleyan College English professor and business consultant. "We're focusing on the idea that learning occurs all the time and should be one of the highest values within homes, businesses, schools and organizations."

By getting the whole community focused on lifelong learning, economic development and improved quality of life will follow, organizers said.

A 12-member subcommittee of the Citizens Committee on Education has been working for about three years to introduce the concept. The members have led focus group discussions for a wide range of audiences, including business, religious, education, civic and government groups.

"This will be a communitywide collaboration with a director, but the projects, goals and objectives will come from the organizations themselves," Darrell said. "The director will encourage them to select measurable goals."

What does it mean?

The Learning Community Initiative is about changing culture, organizers said. The process is a way to work "up stream" to affect economic development and quality of life.

"It truly is a grass-roots initiative in which all different segments of the community can decide how to support it," said Jennifer Wright, director of mission and organizational development at Owensboro Medical Health System. She has conducted focus groups for the Citizens Committee and is a new member of The Learning Community Initiative committee.

OMHS is participating through continuous learning opportunities for its employees, Wright said. Workers can take on-site classes in several areas, including computer skills. The hospital also partners with Owensboro Community & Technical College's SkillTrain to provide opportunities for employees to get their GEDs and offers tuition reimbursement for college.

OMHS will be setting goals to increase the numbers of associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees of employees, Wright said.

"Many other employers already are doing these things, and we challenge and hope other businesses can do the same," she said. "Then we want to capture what's going on in the community and measure it."

The community focus groups produced a good start of ideas for the initiative, she said.

"It's not really about degree attainment, although that will happen; informal learning is just as important," Wright said. "It's about what we can do to change the face of the community."

Other ideas from the local research include wiring every home in Daviess County for Internet service, offering free keyboarding classes for residents who want that knowledge, and offering every high school graduate the opportunity for higher education.

Community health improvement advances have occurred when local residents embrace the same ideas, Wright said. The Learning Community Initiative can work in similar fashion.

"It's a cultural change, not just an information change," she said.

Other Learning Community Initiative members are Rodney Berry, Nick Brake, Candance Brake, Marilyn Brookman, Cindy Fiorella, Jana Beth Francis, Sister Vivian Bowles, Tom Shelton and Larry Vick.

Learning is the common thread

The idea for the learning community brand came from local real estate and property manager Malcolm Bryant. He and his wife and business partner, Sally Bryant, have served on a broad range of local boards and committees to improve the community, he said.

"From my experience, the common thread that holds the community together is education," Bryant said.

Global change and education are parallel issues, and will be even more closely linked in the future, Bryant said.

"It just makes sense for us to use every ounce of everything we have to take advantage of global change, and learning is the vehicle to do that," he said. "We want our kids to be able to compete everywhere, and we want our businesses and CEOs to be confident that our community will produce the right human resource capital."

The full-time director will take 12 months to contact groups and individuals and present The Learning Community Initiative. Funds for the director's salary and benefits come from private sources, Bryant said.

While there are no education goals, organizers believe the initiative will produce measurable results.

"We talk about valuing learning a lot in our community, but our results show that we do not," Darrell said. "Everybody has to value learning, and then the other results will come."

Next Steps

If you are interested in joining The Learning Community Initiative or in applying for the director job, e-mail your name and phone number and intention to liz.seibert@plfo.org.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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