Getting To Work On Welfare Downtown Learning Center Class Teaches Single Mothers The Rudiments Of Succeeding In The Business World

Fri., March 26, 1999

Grayden Jones Staff writer

Tucked behind the atrium of Eastern Washington University’s Spokane Center, teacher Linna McAuliffe is putting 15 single mothers on welfare through the drill.

Dress professionally. Show up every day. Leave the excuses at home.

“They come here with a lot of personal baggage, but I tell them, `I don’t care,”’ said McAuliffe, who is using the Downtown Learning Center to train her class for the business world. “If they quit here, they go back on the dole.”

Job training for welfare recipients is just one of the services that the new Learning Center provides.

Spokane business and education leaders officially opened the center at 705 W. First Ave. on Thursday, though McAuliffe has been conducting classes since January at the site for future call center workers.

Nearly two years in the making, the Learning Center provides space and staff to employers who need trained workers and professionals who need to refresh their credentials.

“In today’s environment, most individuals have five different careers, and they need a way to go back and get the education,” Eastern President Stephen Jordan said. “This center is a real concrete example of a shift in the way educators must think” about how to serve the public.

Eastern is donating the space for the Learning Center and the Community Colleges of Spokane is providing the staff.

The project, which has an estimated annual budget of $100,000, also is supported by the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, Focus 21, Employment Security, Washington Mutual Savings Bank, the American College Testing program and the National Alliance of Business.

Joanne Murcar, coordinator of the chamber’s Workforce Development Council, said the center offers occupational assessment for Welfare-to-Work participants, continuing education programs for downtown professionals and basic training for people who need help in problem solving, communications, keyboarding and English.

Organizers said they also have plans for additional Learning Centers at the Spokane Industrial Park and the West Plains.

The downtown center can be reached at 533-3008.

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