As Indiana communities develop local opportunities for economic growth, they have turned to post-secondary education and skills training for local citizens. The community itself develops the focus of these centers or networks, so each community-based center has a variety of stakeholders in building the center’s operation and program.

Many community-based centers work together as in geographic regions, such as those in the College Cooperative Southeast and the South Central Education Alliance, while other centers are helped to develop by their connection with statewide offices, such as those in Cooperative Extension Services offices, located in most Indiana counties. The collaborative efforts of public libraries, public schools, economic development and Department of Workforce Development offices, local businesses, and several offices of the Cooperative Extension Service have provided leadership for developing community-based learning centers.

Notes from three annual communities-based conferences are available for more information about these local activities. Some centers’ operations have been made possible by grant funding, but the community determined its own individual path toward educating its work force and adapting to changing times.

Creating Learning Communities Conferences

IHETS conferences, entitled Creating Learning Communities (CLC), began convening in 2000 when invitations were extended to stakeholders from communities around the state. With the extension of the ITN network of two-way video conferencing, a closed system to connect universities and colleges, and most public schools, public libraries, state government statewide offices, and workforce development sites.

The emerging development of post-secondary educational resources throughout the state, combined with the interest in the growth of degrees and classes offered from its member institutions by the Indiana College Network stirred people from many different local community groups. The new century was a perfect time to convene a meeting among educational institutions and the communities that needed far greater training and retraining of skilled workers around the state.

The first conference, Strategies for Success: 2000, brought together communities and higher education for dialog and information about the communities’ needs and a showcase of higher education programs and centers that were available to help communities when asked.

In 2001, the CLC conference emphasized The Fundamentals (PowerPoint presentation), and was well received. The essential thinking and resources for building local programs was presented by individuals experienced in community development and starting local programs from scratch.

In 2002, the last conference in the series, What Works!, gathered active community-level programs built on offering learning services. Contact information, post-conference notes, and PowerPoint presentations are available.