Strategic Initiatives

Educate & Elevate

The 79,000+ adult education leaders stand united in a national campaign to move learning opportunities forward for all Americans to achieve economic mobility. If you are an adult educator stand with us in this educational campaign to help funders understand the value we bring to students, workers and businesses in contributing to social mobility and economic growth. If we educate, then we elevate.

Campaign components include:

A national survey of adult educators to understand what they need in their state and local landscapes for advocacy and outreach
Outreach Campaign Toolkits for organizations to tailor and use for advocacy efforts
Educational webinars and coaching with national marketing and communications experts to leverage the Campaign Toolkit for your advocacy efforts
An expansive website to collectively share adult learner and employer success stories, testimonials and the innovations taking place across the country in Adult Education
A campaign video to use on your state and local websites to educate target audiences about our national efforts.
Campaign Community of Practice for peer-to-peer learning
Regular eblasts on campaign progress and highlights from across the country in adult education innovations and successes

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Amazon's Upskilling Program

Amazon’s partnership with COABE enables adult learners with their high school equivalency to apply for jobs available across the country. Working at Amazon can be the path to a degree in a high demand field or the growth opportunity to become a leader at Amazon and beyond. Entry level jobs pay a minimum of $15/hr.
Amazon strives to maintain an environment where people can learn, adapt, and excel. To do so, Amazon provides programs for employees to learn new skills and build their career – whether that means at Amazon or elsewhere.

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Google Applied Skills

What is Google Applied Digital Skills?

Applied Digital Skills is Google’s free, online digital literacy curriculum. Applied Digital Skills has lessons for a wide range of students, from late elementary-school students to independent adult learners. Instead of teaching digital skills with an instructional manual, the curriculum uses a series of videos to guide students through creating a project from scratch. This means that students who complete a lesson leave with a useful project such as a resume, a monthly budget, a project plan, and more.

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Ambassador Training

COABE’s Student Engagement Strand promotes the notion that engaged learners become leaders in their classrooms and community. Student attendees will have the opportunity to network, and learn about what works in adult basic education along with professional educators and fellow student presenters. Learners who play this kind of leadership role at a national conference persist to success because they transform the way they see themselves – key stakeholders and experts in the field of adult basic education. This gives them a boost in self-esteem along with knowledge, skills, and abilities for their future endeavors in transitioning to higher education and careers. The range of topics covered in this strand is aimed at audiences from across the field of adult education with student perspectives and voice as the central focus.

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Prison Literacy

The Literacy Behind & Beyond the Walls Committee brings together the best and brightest educators, administrators, and leaders in the criminal justice education sector from around the country in order to share their expertise and passion for educating the men and women inside of our prisons and as they transition home to begin their pathway to success. COABE’s Literacy Behind & Beyond the Walls Committee invites you join us as we proudly support adult learners, educators and administrators who work to make change happen.

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COABE / IBM SkillsBuild

SkillsBuild is a platform-enabled program that connects adult learners with employable skills and experience.

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Attention Community College Chancellors, Presidents, Provosts, Financial Aid Leaders and Registrars.

Please register to view archived recordings of COABE’s Ability To Benefit (ATB) Symposium which was held on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.

This ATB Symposium will lay out the federal regulations, give you the motivation to build an ATB process at your college and will give on-the-ground advice from colleges who utilize ATB.

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The purpose of the campaign is to connect adult learners with local programs and to provide an outreach toolkit to program administrators.

Adult Learners Teachers/Administrators

ROI Study

How many times have you wished that you could maintain contact with your adult learners after they left your program so that you could be aware of the gains they were making in their lives as a result of participating in your program? Many of our members have contacted our office asking for data that they could share with a funder or legislator regarding the value of adult education in a learner’s life.

COABE is pleased to share that a ground breaking initiative is underway to showcase the return on investment into adult education! With generous funding provided by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, the new Return on Investment (ROI) initiative will kick off during Adult Education and Family Literacy Week!

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DEI Symposium

COABE’s mission is to inspire educators so adults succeed and communities thrive. We provide leadership, professional development, advocacy, and communication services that encourage greater consciousness and cultural competency in our interactions with teachers, administrators, adult learners, and our partners. We are committed to using our platform and influence to celebrate, engage with, and listen to all adult education communities and diverse voices of our field.

Our organization created the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative in 2020, which has grown steadily over the last two years, leading change and impact for the field of adult education. We invite you to read our recap of activities and contact us if you have related resources that can be shared with the field.

Partner with COABE

If you are interested in forming a partnership or would like to learn more about strategic partnerships, please fill in the contact form below.