For many low-income African American men, especially in places like Memphis, finding and keeping work is a constant struggle and never far from their minds. Many African American communities lack job opportunities, and few people living there have connections to jobs outside their community. Helping residents secure steady employment at decent wages is not a mystery.  We know how to change the outcomes, but to do so successfully requires a two-pronged approach: one that breaks down the institutional barriers that separate people from decent job opportunities and another that enables people to build the skills needed for those well-paying jobs.

​

Skills development for poverty reduction has become almost as much of a mantra as skills for productivity, competitiveness, and growth, and it has proved difficult for policymakers and donors to deal effectively with the competing agendas of skills for poverty reduction and skills for growth.

​

MPAC’s training facility for adult professionals will have flexible and technologically advanced learning environments that are safe, healthy, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, and accessible. It will accommodate the specific space and equipment needs of the training programs and curriculum it provides.  Support spaces geared toward adult needs, such as a business station that allows students to carry out some business functions during their training sessions, will be seamlessly integrated into the facility as well.