2019 marks the sixteenth year that the Crossing has been in service to youth across the state of Indiana. The time has gone by quickly, and what an exciting time we’ve had! Over the years, the hard work of our devoted staff and teachers has resulted in 10,000 young lives influenced for the better. That alone is reason to celebrate! What started off as a single, flagship school in Elkhart has expanded into 21 schools across the state of Indiana, with more on the horizon. We remain responsive to the needs of both students and their communities, therefore we have updated our model over the last year. Groups of 20 students are located in businesses, and we have the promise of new career pathway endeavors in the fields of manufacturing, construction, and healthcare. Our locations in Gary, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Frankfort and Indianapolis have especially flourished, and are the largest Crossing campuses.
Experience is the best teacher and we are overjoyed to offer our young people real, relevant professional experience through our micro businesses. Pallet-building, tree service, firewood processing, excavating, drones, candle-making, and more offer students avenues for putting their soft skill education into practice. Our students are required to create their own business plan, and are held accountable for business partnerships and P & L maintenance. This experience teaches them basic professionalism, preparing them to thrive in any field. Local warehouse spaces have proven to be the perfect location for hosting our student-run micro businesses and provide Crossing students with a low-risk opportunity to explore entrepreneurship.
The Cross
ing is eager to get out the good word about all that our campuses have to offer. To that end, we are revamping our web sites and consulting with an outside marketing company to create greater prosperity for our brand, therefore enabling us to offer even greater career pathway opportunities for our students. In that regard, this year has been particularly fruitful, and we have expanded our satellite school model by three locations: DECO Coatings (Indianapolis) Jack Laurie Group (Fort Wayne) and Henry Poor Lumber Co. (Lafayette.)
Lastly, it has been most encouraging to receive the degree of support and appreciation that we have from state and local government, IDOE and Workforce Development. With their support our development team has worked tirelessly to expand our outreach, resulting in the promise of five more schools opening in the fall. These results are yet another example of their commitment to the Crossing and we gratefully anticipate the impact these new schools will have upon their communities.
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