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You
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The Abilities Center
A Multiply Intelligent Community Education and Family Center
by Judy Bonne
Contents / Jump To:
A New Kind of Community Center
Drawing word processing concepts? Singing and dancing software routines? Acting out the sequences of an information system? All this, says Jon Lundin, President of the Abilities Center in Rockford, Illinois (Goodwill Industries International of Northern Illinois), may one day be a part of its innovative programming. At a time when the overabundance of information leaves many of us gasping for breath, the Center is trying to "break the mold" - not only conceptually, but also in practice.
Among the services offered by this autonomous, nonprofit, community-based organization are:
- Vocational assessment, counseling, and job-seeking services (including job-retention support.)
The Abilities Center's new MULTITREX Learning System combines a multiple intelligence approach to learning with an actual production work environment. Relaxation, visualization, and music have been integrated into its office technology program, as students learn the keyboard by moving their bodies to "home key" routines or work on increasing their keystrokes while listening to a baroque piece. Has this made a difference? According to one participant, he now knows "how I learn. In fact, I might never have been able to learn word processing in any other way."
The Abilities Center has served many different communities and constituencies in the course of its 60 year history. Founded in response to the high levels of unemployment in northern Illinois during the Great Depression (1936), the Center shifted its focus to the needs of the elderly and disabled World War II veterans in the late 1940s; expanded its programs to provide special services for the mentally ill during the 1960s; and widened its focus still further in the 1980s to include a wide range of adults with special needs. The Center is operated in the belief that work is a common, unifying value in society, a cornerstone of successful social relationships; and it currently provides full and part-time employment for more than 200 persons - making it one of Rockford's 100 largest employers.
The Abilities Center, along with six other affiliates of Goodwill Industries International in Los Angeles, Knoxville, Boston, Baltimore, Fort Worth, and Great Falls (Montana), will be participating in a new Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) through the US Dept. of Commerce. The purpose of the grant is to "assist in the training and support of other social services agencies and the education, training, and employment of the people that they serve".
Building a Learning Environment
In addition to its many programs and businesses, the Abilities Center is the "host" and principal developer of a one-stop shopping center (55,000 square feet) for family services in northern Illinois. Included in this center are a Head Start preschool, daycare and adult learning center; MOMS Medical Center for indigent families; a 153-child Title XX day care (this new $1.7 million facility was erected in cooperation with the Illinois Facilities Fund and the Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services); and a 10,000 square-foot Goodwill Store.
The newest addition is Spectrum School, a private, arts-focused, multiple-intelligence program recognized as a model by Eric Oddleifson, Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum. The Abilities Center worked closely with Spectrum staff, parents, and students in the renovation of a 20,000 square-foot area of a former food store on the site. Starting with the bare-bones shell of the building and assisted by two architects - one an Abilities Center board member, the other a former Spectrum student, the two organizations have introduced a creative spatial concept into education: an alternative to closed-in, egg crate classrooms.
With angled and irregular walls and windows,
a variety of colors and surfaces, an interior townscape defining its commons area, the new Spectrum School -- described by one visitor as an "exploratorium" -- offers an imaginative, provocative environment for learning. The physical space reflects the multi-age, multidisciplinary, integrated learning taking place. Most importantly, the children, parents and teachers love it. One parent paid it the highest compliment. "The space creates a sense of invitation, openness, and wonder. The classrooms are all interconnected. Isn't that what learning's about?"
Not only has Spectrum provided the model and incentive for the renovation of the Abilities Center learning area, it has also significantly influenced the direction of the Center's adult learning programs.
Judy Bonne
Abilities Center
1907 Kishwaukee St.
Rockford, Illinois, 61104-5121
Funding for programs is in part provided by:Accreditation includes:
- Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services (DORS)
- Rock River Private Industry Council/Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)
- U.S. Department of Labor.
Affiliations include:
- The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitative Facilities (CARF)
- North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA)
- United Way of Rock River Valley and GoodWill International.
We are grateful to Judy Bonne, the staff member responsible for New Business Development for the MULTITREX program at the Center for her article, and to Neil Peterson for the accompanying images describing the Center.
Copyright © 1996 New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
For permission to redistribute, please contact:
info@newhorizons.org