MANSFIELD — One local instructor, Steve Wilkinson, who is employed by Mansfield Adult Education and Catalyst Life Services is making a lasting impact in the lives of his students.
Since 2017 Mansfield Adult Education Aspire has been working with the residents at the CAC to increase their college and career readiness opportunities.
This year, program coordinator, Andrea Karpiak-Feasel established a partnership between Catalyst Life Services’ Success Unlimited (One Strike established in 2013 by Dan Dickman), Richland County Job and Family Services (WIOA), and the Richland County Community Alternative Center (CAC) to create a stronger workforce and career readiness curriculum.
This year the focus shifted to providing students with an instructor who had the knowledge to assist individuals with complex pasts and to decrease recidivism in Richland and surrounding counties. In turn, students at the CAC are given a better chance at starting over through a reformatted workforce development training program for people with compromised backgrounds.
“Steve really cares about what he’s doing for us and it’s important to him that we get to know things that we didn’t have the chance to learn before. Steve introduces us to laws and other resources that are important for folks who have any sort of a background to know,” said one student, Dion Walker.
The Richland County Community Alternative Center (CAC) provides residential placement and treatment services for Adult Court offenders as a part of jail diversion, treatment programming and sentencing options for both Common Pleas and Municipal Courts in Ohio. Residents of the CAC have the chance to enroll monthly into Mansfield Adult Education/One Strike classes that are held twice a week for a total of five hours.
This is a workforce, college, and career readiness program that incorporates adult basic literacy and the needs and skills that someone with a compromised background needs to have in order to be successful. This program starts the transitional work that a student needs while they’re still in residential drug and alcohol treatment at the CAC.
The curriculum also covers important topics such as: critical thinking, ethical leadership, emotional intelligence, working with others, meeting workplace expectations, effective communication, and many other workplace skills – essential skills as the students are soon to re-enter the workforce and society.
This transitional work is proving to be the most impactful to the students, with one student sharing encouragement to future participants.
“If you’re interested in changing your outcome when you get out of here (CAC), getting educated, and getting your background cleaned up you should definitely listen to Steve and take his advice,” said James Riggenbach.
Dakota Dye, another participant of the program shared that Steve has helped with acquiring jobs “even though I have a background.” Dye also said that he has been taught about getting his records sealed by Steve and that a friend of his told him about Steve and helping with his record so that’s how he knew to enroll when he got to the Community Alternative Center.
These services are not limited to residents of the Community Alternative Center, and they are available to any individuals in Richland County for free, please call Mansfield Adult Education at 419-525-6380 for more information.
Mansfield Adult Education is federally-funded through the Ohio Aspire grant and is fiscally managed by Mansfield City Schools, serving students in Richland, Ashland, and Crawford Counties.