Family Independence Initiative Program Adaptations: Work Focus

Adult Education

• Incorporate work prep, job search, and job retention activities.
• Work prep: job shadowing, mentoring, and work experience placements
• Job search: résumé and application writing; interview practice
• Job retention: Post-program follow-up, support groups
• Foster career awareness. Use career exploration surveys and materials.
• Document parents' skills and experiences that can be presented to employers.
• Present basic skills lessons in the context of the world of work.
• Use extended learning activities at home and in the community to reinforce lessons.
• Support learning by using technology.

Parent Time

• Provide financial and time management lessons.
• Emphasize the importance of language and literacy development of both children and parents.
• Discuss strategies for eliminating common barriers to retention. Examples may be
• Developing a social network
• Securing back-up child care services
• Obtaining transportation and support services

Children's Education

• Incorporate work-related vocabulary in the classroom.
• Emphasize the world-of-work in preschool activities.
• Coordinate work-related content between adult education and early childhood education.
• Reflect parents' career goals and jobs in the children's classroom.

Parent and Child Together (PACT) Time

• Adapt your program schedule to provide fewer hours of instruction.
• Send home work-related activities that are reviewed after each use.
• Use a language and literacy focus during home visits.
• Provide parent-child literacy activities in local libraries and community centers.

Adapted from Delivering Family Literacy Services in the Context of Welfare Reform (Alamprese, 1999).

This information was produced by the National Center for Family Literacy for use on www.thinkfinity.org, a powerful educational platform supported by the Verizon Foundation. This information is in the public domain and may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes without permission.

Copyright © 2006 by the National Center for Family Literacy. Produced by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) (325 W. Main Street, Suite 300, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-4237).