Pittsburgh Urban League shares $1 million for GED program
Share with others:
Corinthian Colleges Inc. has given the National Urban League $1 million to expand GED programs in Pittsburgh and Orlando.
The grant, announced today, will be split between the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and the Urban League of Central Florida and is part of a new partnership, the Urban Empowered College Bound Program, between the organizations.
Pittsburgh and Orlando were chosen to receive the funding from a pool of 97 Urban League affiliates due to their track record of successful GED programs.
"It will help young people have a better chance of completing their post-secondary education, gaining full-time employment and having higher salaries than those who don't," said Marc Morial, National Urban League president and CEO. "This is an important step, but it's a small step because there are 29 million Americans who do not have a high school diploma."
The affiliates will infuse the grant money into their GED programs this summer to offer wrap-around services to overcome common barriers in earning a high school diploma, such as childcare and transportation issues, in addition to preparation courses, career coaching, financial literacy training and life skills training.
Under the first phase of the program, the affiliates will take on 100 additional clients, which more than doubles the number of people the Pittsburgh GED program worked with in the last year.
"I really like the fact that Corinthian is targeting non-high school graduates because what that says is you can become a high school graduate and we expect you to go to college," said Esther L. Bush, Pittsburgh's Urban League president and CEO .
Corinthian Colleges Inc. is one of the largest post-secondary education companies in the country. Everest Institute, 100 Forbes Ave., is one of the company's 122 campuses.
First Published February 14, 2012 4:35 pm
