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In these tough economic times, what would compel a company to donate $100 million to a community-engagement project? The foresight that its future competitive work force is directly tied to the success of this project.

The company under discussion here is AT&T, No. 22 on The 2008 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® list. The project is AT&T Aspire, an ambitious three-year program whose goal is to dramatically slow the surge of high-school dropouts in this country.

The numbers are staggering. More than 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year, representing one third of all public-high school students. For Black, Latino and American Indian students, one half fail to graduate public high schools, according to Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of America's Promise Alliance, the non-profit implementing the program for AT&T.

"We need a national wake-up call. If we could get the nation to focus on a single statistic, it should be the drop-out rate. As we talk to leaders, such as the CEO of AT&T (Randall Stephenson, who also is chairman), people understand that we cannot afford to have this continue," she says. For a video of Stephenson's comments on the need for an educated work force, click here.

For AT&T, the Aspire program fits with its emphasis on creating a viable future work force and understanding that increasingly, that younger work force is comprised of Black, Latino and American Indians. 

"The country's high-school drop-out rate is one of the long-term challenges facing our global competitiveness," says Charlene Lake, AT&T's vice president of corporate citizenship and sustainability. "These numbers -- it's like losing from our potential work force a city the size of San Antonio. Today, for example, the country's going to lose 7,000 kids in one day. Most of these kids are dropping out with passing grades. In 25 years, this country is going to have a shortage of 45 million workers. We HAVE to concentrate on this."

John M. Bridgeland, author of the report "The Silent Epidemic," has been commissioned to develop cutting-edge research on the long-term effects of high-school dropouts and best practices to keep them in school and engaged. He emphasized the need for more federal support and praised the leadership Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has shown in this area.

"It's an issue our economy cannot ignore and help needs to come from the public and private sectors," he says. "The corporate perspective is critical and what's at stake is substantial loss of revenue."

How it Works

There are four primary components to the AT&T initiative:

• Providing grants to schools and nonprofits. Through 2011, the program is awarding grants of up to $100,000 each to create strong local initiatives. The schools/educational nonprofits must demonstrate metrics to assess success. To apply, they should go to www.att.com/education.

• Providing job shadowing for 100,000 students over the next five years.  Working with Junior Achievement and local businesses, the program will allow students to see what real jobs are like and what the future could hold for them. "It's exactly what young people identify with to keep them engaged in classroom learning … they need to see the relevance of what they learn in the workplace," says Strickland. Junior Achievement reports 79 percent of students participating in job shadowing say it increased their desire to stay in school.
  
  
• Underwriting 100 community dropout-prevention summits. Led by America's Promise, the summits will be held in all 50 states over the next three years. Cities can receive up to $10,000 and states up to $25,000 through the AT&T grant. At each summit, which will include community and state leadership, the business community, schools, non-profits, faith leaders and youth, an action plan is created. Follow-up is coordinated through local United Ways and community organizations. The first summit recently was held in Detroit. Kondracke says local businesses there donated $10 million on the spot to fund the local action plan.
  
  
• Major research. Bridgeland's new research is scheduled to be completed next year. His public-policy organization, Civic Enterprises, is performing focus groups and surveys of more than 1,000 teachers, principals, school-board members and administrators in urban, suburban and rural areas to get their perspectives on the dropout program and what's working and what's not.

AT&T is not the only company to address this very critical issue. Kondracke notes that Ford Motor Company, No. 27 on the Top 50 and Boeing are among the companies investing in America's future work force. And DiversityInc recently initiated the Business Connections Pipeline Program with Rutgers University-Newark to create financial and developmental avenues for corporations to help urban schools maximize talent potential of their students.

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