HopeWorks recently hosted its Third Annual Fundraiser Breakfast “A Morning of Hope with Bill Strickland.” WMC TV 5 was on hand to cover the event.
Click here to watch the video coverage.
HopeWorks recently hosted its Third Annual Fundraiser Breakfast “A Morning of Hope with Bill Strickland.” FOX-13 covered the breakfast and aired it on the March 5 news at 9 p.m.
Click here to watch the video coverage.
HopeWorks executive director Ron Wade and teacher Antonio Owens were on abc24 Midday to promote A Morning of Hope with Bill Strickland, which will be held on Saturday, March 5, at Woodland Hills Event Center in Cordova, Tenn.
Click here to watch the video interview.
FaithinMemphis.com
The Commercial Appeal
Education is empowering. Just ask Bill Strickland, who credits the influence of his high school art teacher with helping him rise from an at-risk youth in inner-city Pittsburgh to 1996 MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient.
Strickland, CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation and recently featured in the educational documentary “Waiting for Superman,” will be our guest speaker at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the third annual HopeWorks Breakfast at Woodland Hills Event Center in Cordova.
Strickland’s story serves as an inspiration to many, including those of us at HopeWorks, where we teach job skills to the unemployed, with a heavy reliance on faith. We have adult students who for one reason or another gave up the hope of getting a good education in our community. HopeWorks helps the chronically unemployed find a career rather than just a job.
Many of the students we see are unemployed because they lack a high school diploma – a consequence that can be catastrophic to job prospects. Recent research shows that 75 percent of the state’s prison inmates are high school dropouts, and 90 percent of the 11,000 youth in adult detention facilities have no higher than a ninth-grade education. A young female high school dropout is nine times more likely to become a single mother than a young woman who goes on to earn a college degree.
It is not just a career that is the goal of HopeWorks, but rather a changed life. In addition to curriculum designed for personal and career development and GED support, we treat our students with dignity and love by surrounding them with mentors called “faith encouragers.” Licensed and Master’s level counselors round out a holistic approach for our students. And it is the inclusion of Christian-based principles that makes the difference with our students.
With this holistic approach, we hope to foster individual worth through practical and spiritual methods. Individual worth is built by identifying one’s passion and finding ways to incorporate that passion into career opportunities. It also comes back Strickland’s simple yet profound message of treating people with dignity and respect. I see the effects of this every day.
We all have a stake in making Memphis’ education system great. And we can all continue to have hope in education for future generations – at all levels. I invite you to join us March 5 for “A Morning of Hope” as Bill Strickland shares his model for education and the arts, which is being replicated across the country.
Ron Wade is the executive director of HopeWorks Inc., a Memphis-based not-for-profit organization. Learn more about the organization, as well as “A Morning of Hope,”
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By Aisling Maki
The Daily News
Bill Strickland is widely admired for the many hats he wears; CEO, social entrepreneur, writer, speaker and visionary.
But more than anything, Strickland, featured in the acclaimed education documentary “Waiting for Superman,” is a firm believer in second chances – a value he shares with HopeWorks, Inc., a faith-based non-profit dedicated to helping Memphians affected by crime, poverty and irresponsibility break the cycle and transform their lives.
He will serve as keynote speaker at the organization’s March 5 breakfast, A Morning of Hope with Bill Strickland, which will start at 8:30 a.m. at Woodland Hills Event Center, 10000 Woodland Hills Drive.
Click here to read more from The Daily News.
What: Third Annual HopeWorks Breakfast
When: Saturday, March 5 | 8:30 a.m.
Where: Woodland Hills Event Center
A Gourmet Breakfast by Sysco Memphis
Musical Entertainment by Stephanie Needham, TurningPoint
Making the Impossible Possible: Bill Strickland and HopeWorks
“A simple life is not something you simply pursue; it is something you create, moment by moment.”
- Bill Strickland
Nationally recognized as a visionary leader who authentically delivers educational and cultural opportunities to at-risk students and adults, Bill Strickland is president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, a Pittsburgh-based youth development and adult training center. Through the power of his vision, the consistency of his purpose and an undying belief in the goodness of human beings, Strickland has restored the faith of thousands in ethical, accountable and visionary leadership. And his organizations have created a model for arts, education, training and, most importantly, hope – reshaping the business of social change in America. Like HopeWorks, Bill’s accomplishments as a leader and humanitarian are reflected not in awards or accolades, but in the number of people who have risen out of poverty and into the world of full-time employment.
Bill’s message is simple: Give people the tools they need and treat them with respect, and they will perform miraculous deeds. It’s as simple as it is profound. HopeWorks uses this same formula by showing compassion and giving opportunity to all its students. We truly believe that the cycle of crime, addiction and irresponsibility can be broken and that all who seek a new life can become hard-working, faith-professing individuals. Through our holistic approach to daily classes and meals, educational training and spiritual counseling, HopeWorks strives to give our students the tools they need to break free from the cycle that traps so many in our city.
Bill Strickland, founder and CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, has been selected as the keynote speaker for the 2011 Morning of Hope breakfast. The third annual fundraising breakfast will be Saturday, March 5, 2011 at the Woodland Hills Event Center, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Hailed as a visionary leader, Strickland directs the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center on the north side of Pittsburgh tackling poverty and unemployment with a “national model for education, culture and hope.” HopeWorks’ students, volunteers and supporters will hear from a man with a powerful and successful vision for social change in our community. Click here to read more about Bill Strickland’s story.
Check WhyHopeWorks.org in the near future for upcoming event information and details about the 2011 Morning of Hope with Bill Strickland. We look forward to sharing this special morning with you on March 5!
Susan Rubio spent much of her life in private education before realizing that she belonged elsewhere – closer to the street.
Having attended Harding Academy as a child and later working there as a teacher and administrator, she “wanted to give back to someone who couldn’t afford a private education.”
“I’m a good teacher and I was always attracted to the ones who did the poorest and just didn’t like school, the ‘bad kids,’ “Rubio said. “So it was like a homecoming when I first started here. I felt like I was finally teaching at home.”
For Rubio, home is HopeWorks where she is director of education, a place where the lesson of self-sufficiency and the wisdom in teaching a man to fish is put into practice every day. HopeWorks helps those in need, those out of work or looking for a change in their lives, by teaching them basic skills and helping them to advance their knowledge base.
“They come because they’ve been unemployed for a long time, or perhaps they’re making career changes,” Rubio said. “Typically our students have a weak employment history or they don’t know what they want to do in the future, so they come here and study careers and learn about themselves and become career-ready. We launch them from here to a new place.”
Click here to read more from the Memphis Daily News.
Mark Lewis and Marques Curry walked into John Anderson’s office, bringing little more than troubled pasts and lots of hope. Then a light came on. Anderson, the owner of Ellendale Electric Company, gave both men work.
Click here to read more from The Commercial Appeal.
HopeWorks, with a reputation for turning people’s lives around, now has the tracking data to prove it.
Less than 10 percent of its graduates from January 2006 to April 2010 who had criminal backgrounds ended up back behind bars. The faith-based program teaches job skills and provides career counseling to the chronically unemployed, including people with felony records.
HopeWorks recently put the names of 211 graduates into a database after looking through four years worth of documents. Of that number, 112 had prior criminal backgrounds, but only 11 committed additional crimes after graduating.
Ron Wade, who became executive director of HopeWorks nearly two years ago, made it a goal to track outcomes.
“I came from a business background where you’ve got quotas and measurements and all that kind of stuff,” Wade said. “The nonprofit business is the same way. If I was going to ask you to invest in HopeWorks, you would want to know what we are doing.”
Click here to read more from the Memphis Daily News.
