Hybrids Among Parent Fields

The partnerships illustrates several hybrids among "parent fields" spanning a wide range of disciplines coming together into specific partnerships intended to bring the best of each field into helping low-income working families gain skills and advance in their careers. Consequently, later attempts to group them into particular categories are difficult (and sometimes met with resistance) because that seems to negate the "hybridization" which is being identified and rewarded. Part of the evolution of these hybrids is the shift in self-identification that organizations go through in describing who they are and what they do. Following are some of the ways in which the GWDC sees "hybridization" among Families Forward program partners

• Traditional place-based economic or workforce development combined with sector- or occupation-based skills training. The original model of the Health Careers Institute is an example of this kind of hybrid, as are Stearns Benton, Pillsbury United Communities, and West Central as a rural place-based example
  
  
• Workforce literacy work being done by some Families Forward partners represents a hybrid of traditional job training and traditional literacy and/or ESL work. The Language of Opportunity (by Wrigley, et. al., Center for Law and Social Policy, August 2003) highlights the International Institute in its Appendix of Promising Practices. In this case, the hybrid is evident in the curriculum and in the learning environment that is established linking workforce literacy with specific job skills. Families Forward examples include Workforce Development, Inc., Dakota County, Hennepin Tech and International Institute
  
  
• Blending of traditional human capital investment strategies with sectoral or employer-based approaches. This kind of hybrid is evident in West Central, Anoka, Teamworks, Goodwill, Allina / Health Careers Institute and MN Build
  
  
• Four grantees (e.g., Capital City, HTC, Dakota County and Stearns Benton) started out primarily as employer-oriented and are, in some cases, building additional service elements (individual supports or training) into their employer focus