Accomplishments

• 297 students enrolled, including 59 ESOL learners; 15 students completed their GED's (only seven (7) entered the program with skills advanced enough to enroll at the GED level)
• 15 students gained employment; 24 students maintained employment recently secure or obtained job advancement
  
• 42 students reported reading more to their children; 24 students reported greater involvement in their children's schooling
  
• CLC began making preparations for the development of a three-year strategic plan. Said plan is advancing in the current fiscal year with the support of Dr. Laura Otten, Ph.D., from the LaSalle's Nonprofit Center; Otten is presently facilitating staff and board/staff retreats, during which we are developing our strategic plan.
  
• Other accomplishments include the development of student leadership. Two of our board members are former students, neither of whom had previously served on a board of directors. We believe that the leadership skills they are learning as CLC board members will help them become leaders in their community. Further, one of our employees, Terry Banford, a former CLC student, graduated from Temple University on May 21, 1999, with her master's degree in social work. She is now employed full-time as a social worker for CLC, where she heads the Student Support Services Department (SSSD) and serves as a role model and leader for others in the community. Building on this model, yet another former student, Nabori Rosario, is working as an assistant case manager for CLC, under Terry Banford's supervision, while attending Community College of Philadelphia in pursuit of a degree in social work.

SSSD accomplishments:
The SSSD had a total of 1099 individual student contacts during the academic year in addition to regular classroom group lessons. Individual contacts broke down as follows:

• 176 contacts regarding personal issues (e.g. health/medical, drugs and alcohol, legal, welfare-related, crime); 21 contacts regarding housing issues (e.g. homelessness, fire, eviction, utilities); 243 contacts regarding family issues (e.g. domestic violence, child's school issues, family relationships, arranging for children's summer camp); 206 contacts regarding job-related issues (e.g. writing a resume, personal problems at work, volunteer work, interviewing skills, clothing for work); 453 contacts regarding academic issues (e.g. financial aid, GED issues, study skills).
  
• 100% of students who obtained GED developed a career plan, based on results of the Strong [career] Interest Inventory Test, setting specific career-related objective for post-graduation
  
• 71% of all students who completed the Strong Interest Inventory Test developed a career plan based on the results (the remaining 29% did not return to the program).