On April 26 former Senator and Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Mike Beatty made a stop at the Wiregrass Regional College and Career Academy. Mr. Beatty is a native of Jefferson, Georgia and a former high school football coach. He is now President and CEO of Great Promise Partnership (GPP). GPP is a non-profit organization which addresses poverty and workforce development throughout the state. GPP is essentially work-based learning for at-risk students.
Mr. Beatty is touring the state – he just left Sandersville and is going on to Valdosta and Fitzgerald – building support for the GPP initiative.
Many community and education leaders attended the April 26 meeting. Coffee Schools CTAE Director Brad Riner, Superintendent Dr. Morris Leis, Stanley Lott from the Department of Labor, and Adam Smith from First National Bank of Coffee County were present. Also in attendance were Chamber of Commerce administrators Mesha Davis and Andrea Taylor. Sandy Sharpe and Kristie Langston attended from the human resources departments of Southwire and Elixir Doors and Metals respectively, along with Mr. Barry Bloom, Vice President of the Coffee Regional Medical Center Foundation.
Traveling with Mr. Beatty is Ms. Shawn Stamey, the human resources representative for the Caterpillar, Inc., manufacturing plant in Athens, Georgia. Ms. Stamey gave a presentation about the Athens plant’s involvement with GPP.
The Athens facility employs 1,400 people and has eight high school students involved in the GPP program. Ms. Stamey said that one positive for GPP participants is that they are more readily teachable. She noted that her organization is successfully teaching GPP students soft skills, the productive personality traits employers are seeking. Ms. Stamey said that it is easier to teach these soft skills to employees when they haven’t already learned undesirable traits.
Many schools, including the Coffee County system, already have work-based learning programs in place. Mr. Beatty and his team said that GPP is not like existing programs. GPP does not focus on providing jobs and training to A and B students. GPP is about helping C and D students, those who are not on track to graduate, and therefore most in need of help.
Mr. Beatty praised Southwire and Zaxby’s for working with GPP in the past. He believes that more can be done. He thanked Superintendent Leis for approving a new position for a work-based instructor. “This is not about cheap labor,” Beatty said. He said that GPP is about “coaching kids up” to be successful workers and responsible members of a healthy, growing community.
Those who wish to learn more about the Great Promise Partnership program can click on the link below: