Focusing on community

FOCUS: Hope builds equal opportunity

As unique as the University is, it is still a part of something greater than itself. As a member of a community, it is responsible for aiding the surrounding area. One of the ways the University fulfills its obligation is through participation in Focus: HOPE, a Detroit based community assistance program.

Founded in 1968 in the wake of the previous year's riots, Focus: HOPE seeks to overcome racism, poverty and injustice through an award-winning program of education and community outreach. The goal of the program is to train impoverished and poorly educated people so they can get decent jobs, facilitating a healing between people of different socio-economic backgrounds.

A high school diploma or G.E.D. makes a person eligible to join the program. Potential candidates need not pay for the high quality education available - an important fact considering the low economic status of many citizens in the Detroit area.

Candidates with low placement scores can enroll in First Step, an intensive four week program to raise their math and reading skills. After this, they may enroll in Fast Track, a further seven weeks of basic training. Upon graduation, or placement if they already possess the needed reading and math skills, they may enroll in the Machinist Training Institute or Information Technologies Center. While training, these students create actual parts for manufacturing corporations, who pay the program's students for their work with an hourly wage.

Focus: HOPE also offers students the opportunity to obtain an Associate or Bachelors degree in manufacturing, engineering and technology. It is here the University, and several other local schools take an active role. The Center for Advanced Technologies has a partnership with these schools and several corporate partners, for whom many of the program's graduates will one day work.

By providing degrees, personnel and other assets, the University and its partners help Focus: HOPE achieve its mission of creating a strong metropolitan community.

Education is one of the key tools in combating the gaps between rich and poor, minority and majority. Participants in Focus: HOPE receive one of the best opportunities possible, one that will not only expand their knowledge, but also nearly guarantee a successful career after graduation.

Focus: HOPE has a 100 percent job placement record. Although not every student enrolled graduates, manufacturing corporations eagerly recruit those that do. Graduates go on to receive high wages and benefits.

The University does the surrounding community a great service through its participation in Focus: HOPE. Programs like these do not merely demand positive change; they actively succeed in creating it. Offering free, high quality education to those that would otherwise not have access is a solution to some of the nation's problems. The program's name itself is appropriate. In a time when the country's social dilemmas often seem unsolvable, Focus: HOPE shows problems can be fixed and that there truly is hope for the future.

11-18-99