ldunbar@nul.org

Max Smith, (212)558-5371

msmith@nul.org

Washington, DC, May 31, 2001—National Urban League president Hugh B. Price announced today that the League has received $425,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Labor to create a workforce capacity building program called the Quality Way Initiative.

With pilot programs planned for implementation in five Urban League cities— Austin, TX, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Columbus, OH and Los Angeles, CA—the Quality Way Initiative will focus on assisting Urban League affiliates engaged in workforce development programs in becoming customer-driven, high-quality providers of workforce development services that will be competitive with any other service provider in their communities.

To further the success of the League’s Quality Way Initiative and create a national performance standard, the National Urban League has also formed a strategic alliance with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, The Chauncey Group International (a subsidiary of the Educational Testing Service), and the NorthWest Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) to build staff capacity, confer industry-recognized credentials, and engage in continuous improvement.

"The primary objective of the League’s Quality Way Initiative is to effectively prepare Urban League affiliates engaged in workforce development programming to assist job seekers and program participants in meeting the requirements and performance standards of 21^st century employers," Price said.

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Specific goals of the League’s Quality Way Initiative are to:

• Train and certify National Urban League affiliate trainers to a nationally recognized cross-industry standard for technical instructors.
• Increase the capacity of National Urban League affiliate instructors to utilize a state-of-the-art computer-based curriculum that is mapped to nationally validated entry-level IT standards.
• Increase the capacity of National Urban League affiliate frontline staff to provide quality career planning and career management assistance to constituents through a staff certification program.
• Assist National Urban League affiliates in developing and implementing a performance management system that collects and analyzes customer satisfaction information and data for the purpose of continuous quality improvement.

The Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream. The National Urban League, headquartered in New York City, spearheads the nonprofit, nonpartisan movement, while Urban League affiliates operate in more than 100 cities in 34 states and the District of Columbia.