“No Excuses” March Targets Adult Ed

When Veronica Douglas-Givan leads a ​“No Excuses” march next week in a crusade to get more adults their high-school diplomas, she’ll be looking to reach more people like Jimmy.

Douglas-Givans meets people — a man stuck in a dead-end job because he never finished high school — in her role as outreach chief for New Haven’s Adult & Continuing Education Center. That’s where adults —from 18 to 70 —go if they want a second shot at earning a high school diploma. The school graduated 176 people last year.

That involved staffers like Douglas-Givans working with poeple one-on=one to help them overcome the barriers that caused them to drop out in the first place.

Take Jimmy.

In an interview on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program, Douglas-Givan recalled meeting Jimmy when she was canvassing the Newhallville neighborhood to spread the adult ed word. She met Jimmy’s son. He told her that her father worked at a low-wage factory job. He was offered a promotion to manager with a $30,000 raise — but only if he could get a high school diploma.

So Douglas-Givan went to meet Jimmy.

“I dropped out to take care of my family,” Jimmy told her.

“You can go from the night shift to the day shift” and get that $30,000 raise if you come back to school, Douglas-Givan told him.

He needed help to do that. He needed to pursue the degree at home at odd hours. But he didn’t know how to use a computer. Douglas-Givan brought him in to teach him how to use the computer. He learned. He got the degree. He got the promotion. His life changed.

The title of next Thursday’s march is ​“No Excuses.”

“We’re not blaming the victim. We understand the struggle” and address the challenges that would otherwise become excuses for not getting that degree, Douglas-Givan said.

Many of the people reached by adult ed are, like Jimmy, underemployed. Or unemployed. Some are homeless. Some can’t speak English. Some can’t get around easily. Or they stutter. Or they’re in bad helath. One by one, adult ed gets them bus passes, or language help, or a day care slot for their kids, or counseling, or a referral to a community agency where they can take the classes.

The march begins Thursday, Sept. 26, at 9 a.m. adult ed at 580 Ella Grasso Blvd. It proceeds to the Green, where an informational fair will take place. Past and former students, community members, pretty much everyone is invited. Find more information here.