THE HIGHLINE CONNECTION

A Conversation with Cal Crow

Administrative support for the Center for Dependable Strengths is provided by the Center for Learning Connections, Highline Community College. Highline is located just south of Seattle in Des Moines, Washington. In many ways, the Center for Learning Connections is an extension of the work of Dr. Cal Crow, who is known nation-wide as an authority in the fields of education reform, labor market trends, and workforce development.

Through the Center for Learning Connections, Dr. Crow has helped to establish a base of operation for a team of program developers, project managers, and trainers that works in close partnership with government agencies such as America’s Career Resource Network and private organizations such as the Center for Dependable Strengths. Founded in 1983 by Michael Gordon and Cal Crow, the Center for Learning Connections is one of the nation’s first organizations to link education reform to the hard realities of the workplace in an ever-changing economy.

Among his current projects, Dr. Crow is working inside the prison system (in Washington State and New York State), helping educators learn to think outside the box – encouraging them to shift from an institutional approach to education toward a human approach to learning. For Cal Crow, the question isn’t, “What is the best curriculum for a prison population?” The question is, “How do you engage the imagination of a student in a way that invites that student to accept responsibility for shaping a hopeful future?”

Q. From your perspective as CLC co-founder, how does the team from the Center for Dependable Strengths contribute to the work of the Center for Learning Connections? And how does the CLC team contribute to the work of the CDS?

We are all members of the same family. We support each other and tout each other’s work. Some CLC staff are Dependable Strengths facilitators. The tagline on CLC’s letterhead is “Creating Successful Futures,” which could easily be a motto for Dependable Strengths. Every Dependable Strengths workshop contributes to CLC’s mission, and information provided at CLC events frequently results in requests for Dependable Strengths training. The relationship has been good for both organizations.

Q. How did the Center for Dependable Strengths come to Highline Community College?

Twenty-five years ago, while serving as Career Education Coordinator for the Seattle School District, I was introduced to Bernard Haldane. Over the years, as we discovered a shared passion for helping people find fulfilling employment, we became friends and colleagues.

At Bernard’s 90th birthday party in 2001, I spoke with Bernard and Allen Brown about the possibility of Dependable Strengths and CLC working more closely together. It was clear that the two organizations had similar goals and philosophies, and that each could benefit from working with the other.

The following spring, CLC Assistant Director, John House (a Dependable Strengths graduate and advocate), contacted the Dependable Strengths board to suggest a possible affiliation. After many more meetings and discussions, a decision was made to create a Center for Dependable Strengths, coordinated by CLC.

Q. How have you used the Dependable Strengths philosophy and methods in your work in the prison system? And what results have you seen?

One corrections project activity asks participants to create a mind map of their strengths, skills, and talents (SSTs). Many have a difficult time with this. One lanky six-and-a-half-footer put it this way: “When you have been told all your life that you are nothing but dirt and will never amount to anything, it’s pretty hard to think of positive things to write.”

Like the DS Good Experience, the SST mind map helps overcome this kind of negative self-perception. Many project participants are in education programs, and frequently add to their mind maps as they learn something new. This allows them to see how they are growing and developing and helps them make the connection between education and workplace skills. One teacher commented, “My students never complain about not learning anything, because they are regularly adding new SSTs to their mind maps.”

Participating teachers are reporting positive changes in students’ perceptions about themselves, and about the options available to them. One instructor recently reported that his students are writing more and at a higher level of quality, because they have positive things to write about. Recently, a young man’s mind map became an art project included in an exhibit at a New York City library.

Q. What do you see as the essence of the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process?

It is about helping people grow and change: helping them view and describe themselves in more positive ways; helping them see that they have more options for success than they ever thought possible; helping them see connections and relationships in new ways; helping them learn to appreciate themselves and others; and helping them feel competent, confident, and connected.

Q. What advice do you have for new DSAP facilitators?

I think it is important to understand and respect both the process and the rationale behind Dependable Strengths. It has been carefully thought through, tested successfully in many different situations, and it works. From my perspective, the facilitator’s mission should not be “to conduct a workshop,” but to create situations that bring about growth and change in the participants.