The Open Door Collective stands against police murder, brutality, and unjustifiable suspicion of Black Americans and other Americans of color, and against systemic racism that contributes in profound and multifaceted ways to poverty.

Papers and resources by ODC members

Archive of announcements previously on this page

What's New?

Recent Open Door Collective Webinars

Partnering for a Digitally Equitable World  was offered on June 11th. Supporting digital equity as a bridge out of poverty is particularly timely in light of the impact of the pandemic on adult learning opportunities, as well as many other aspects of life. The discussion centered on digital equity across different types of organizations at state, local, and national government and/or geographic levels. Three experts provided insights on digital equity and partnering, each from a different perspective. Led by moderator Gwenn Weaver, they gave a brief talk on the partnerships they are involved with and then answered questions. You'll find a recording of the webinar here. Copy and paste in the passcode b.cNUG0^

Adult Education’s Foot in the Door: CARES Act and ARP funding was offered on May 6th by Literacy Minnesota Executive Director Eric Nesheim. CARES money, and now ARP funding, is flowing to counties, state and regional library systems, workforce systems and economic development departments, education departments and governors throughout the country. How can adult education programs partner with these agencies to mutually benefit our shared constituents? How can we ensure that the digital skills piece of digital equity is addressed, and our role in providing digital literacy is not left out of the funding matrix? You'll find a recording of the webinar here,  slides here, and a handout, "Literacy Minnesota - Access to Federal Funds" here.

An Open Door Out of Poverty

Open Door Collective Policy Paper
for a new Administration
John Comings, Steve Reder and David Rosen
September, 2020

John Comings presented a webinar based on this paper on February 22nd, 2021. You will find a recording here, and the slides here.

The paper uses data from the 2017 PIAAC assessment to identify adults aged 18 to 54 years who are not in school. This is a population that might benefit from completion of a community college program. Of the 127.8 million adults in this population, 42.1 million adults speak or write English not well or not at all, have low literacy or math skills, or do not have a high school credential. The paper breaks this population into five subgroups defined by the major skill or credential barrier to their success in a community college program. The paper identifies the existing services addressing this problem, makes a case for funding these services at a higher level, and makes specific suggestions on how to improve and expand these services.     

 

ODC presentations at 2021 Conferences

This spring, ODC members made conference presentations on the topic of “Addressing Health Inequities: What Adult Educators and Health Partners Can Do Together.”  To see information presented in those sessions, click here.

The ODC Labor and Workforce Development Issues Group's Archive of Workplace Basic Skills Resources, updated by Paul Jurmo on March 12, 2021 will be found here.

Older Adults Infographic
The Older Adults Issues Group has released a new infographic on the importance of literacy for older adults. Click on the image below to enlarge.
The Open Door Collective (ODC), founded in 2014, assists poverty reduction initiatives to take advantage of, expand, or improve adult foundational (basic) skills services to meet the needs and broaden the economic opportunities of low-income adults. We advocate for effective policies and program designs that will reduce poverty, narrow income inequality, and provide free foundational (basic) skills education for all adults in the United States. Improved policies and programs will enable adults living in poverty to increase their incomes as well as enjoy more economic stability and better health.  These outcomes will diminish the need for social services, increase tax revenues, and lower overall healthcare costs. Expanded adult foundational skills services will, therefore, pay for themselves.

ODC's mission is to reduce poverty in the U.S. by building partnerships between adult foundational (basic) skills programs and organizations supporting social and economic justice. 

Major Strategy. We want adult foundational skills advocates to make common cause with advocates for other issues (community health, employment, criminal justice reform, digital equity and inclusion, older adults services,  public libraries, immigrant and refugee education and integration, and others) in order to build an integrated approach to reducing poverty. The ODC advocacy issues groups, therefore, are engines of ODC's efforts. They produce advocacy papers and presentations that set out the common cause within each ODC issue group. We do this because we believe that the efforts taking place within other issue areas will be more successful if adult foundational skills advocates and practitioners support them and if those advocating for other issues support adult foundational skills. In addition, we believe that an integrated approach to reducing poverty that includes adult foundational skills and other related issues areas is the only way to be successful. 

ODC Active Issues Groups  Active issues groups currently include: Labor and Workforce Development; Public Libraries; Digital Inclusion; Community Health and ABE; and Immigrant and Refugee Education and Integration. Click on this ODC Issues Groups  link for more information.

Readings, Resources and More
The Open Door Collective is a national program of Literacy Minnesota.

​Literacy Minnesota is an internationally recognized non-profit leader and driving force behind the latest developments in literacy learning. We believe literacy has the power to advance equity and justice, and we envision a world where life-changing learning is within everyone’s reach.