Our Mission

The Learning Web is dedicated to providing hands-on experiential education through the age-old mentor-apprentice model. This one-to-one relationship teaches young people valuable job and life skills and empowers them through increased self-awareness and self-esteem to make a successful transition to the world of adult roles and responsibilities.
 

"I appreciate staff’s attentiveness and concern for the apprentices and program. This makes me think The Learning Web has the most polished intern program in the county." - Mentor

Our History & Background

Here at The Learning Web we believe in "learning by doing." The age-old mentor/apprentice model is built on the premise that one generation teaches the next. We learn to work by working, we learn to be a neighbor by being a neighbor, we learn to live by living; and in each case a mentor is our teacher and role model. This is the foundation upon which all Learning Web programs are based and this philosophy informs all of the services we offer youth.

The "SO WHAT" that drives our agency and programs:

Young people-adolescents and young adults-are The Learning Web's reason for being. Assisting young people on their journey to adulthood is our mission: sparking a passion, connecting them with an adult role model, helping them learn how to live on their own and believe in themselves, growing a vision for their future, helping young people evolve into valued members of our community-in the workplace and as active, productive citizens. These are our goals, and time and again we are told that we have achieved them: from the successful contractor who, 15 years ago, was homeless and participating in Youth Outreach, to the MIT physicist who apprenticed in a Cornell lab when she was 14, to the autistic 11th grader whose newspaper apprenticeship led to studying journalism in college; our participants' lives illustrate the impact of their Learning Web experiences.

What Is The Learning Web?

The Learning Web is one of the first programs in the nation to combine apprenticeships with mentoring. We have been working in Tompkins County for nearly 40 years, aiding youth in making a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. The Learning Web has assisted over 10,000 youth-2,300 of whom have been homeless youth-in making the difficult transition from adolescence to a positive adulthood. The agency offers a mix of enrichment, prevention, intervention, and empowerment programs embracing all youth-a blended program that resists stereotyping.

Identifying needs and creating solutions have always been guiding principles for The Learning Web. From establishing one of the country's first youth programs using a mentor/apprentice model, to launching a youth entrepreneurship program, to creating the Youth Outreach Program, our agency has been on the cutting edge of youth programming.

Initially a Cornell University campus-based initiative, the Web has evolved into a respected youth agency offering a range of experiential learning, employment, and independent living programs. At its inception the Web's annual budget was $5,000, serving less than two dozen youth annually. Today, the Web's budget is over $800,000 and more than 700 young people are served annually. Over 400 adult mentors volunteer almost 20,000 hours annually to share their expertise and workplaces with youth.

The Web was one of the first youth development agencies in the nation to launch a youth entrepreneurship program. For 15 years (1985-2000), our 'Youth Scoops' initiative-a partnership with Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream-offered urban and rural youth in our county a skill-building and empowering employment experience. Guided by on-site Learning Web professional staff, Youth Scoops' participatory work and management framework introduced youth participants to, and grounded them in, a positive model of the adult world.

In 1990-when youth homelessness was still an unrecognized problem in many policy circles-the Learning Web launched its Youth Outreach Program. Youth Outreach is now the largest local program serving homeless young people, and the only program providing long-term, intensive case-management and independent living skills training to this population.

Until 1996 the Web was part of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University, a consortium of experiential, socially-oriented programs. As a result of significant programming growth in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the Web initiated a lengthy institutional review process resulting in the Web's incorporation as a separate non-profit organization and its move from the Cornell campus to downtown Ithaca in 1996. Although it is no longer part of the university, the Web maintains strong programmatic and research ties to Cornell.

The agency's two main programs include:

• The Community & Career Exploration & Apprenticeship Program (CCEAP). The CCEAP offers community learning experiences to youth, age 12 and older, who are living at home and attending school. Tailored to each young person's interests, CCEAP's youth engagement programs include career exploration tours, apprenticeships, and community service.
  


 
• The Youth Outreach Program. Youth Outreach offers support and assistance to young people, ages 16-25, who are homeless and living on their own without a parent or guardian. These homeless young people receive help for all aspects of independent living with the goal of moving with confidence toward self-sufficiency.

Our commitment to meeting emerging needs has led us once again to a period of new organizational growth. As a result of a strategic planning process conducted in 2006, the agency sought and secured funding for two new services. Through our Youth Outreach program, we have begun offering the county's first supportive housing program for homeless youth and through our CCEAP, we have begun offering a life skills program to adolescents in family foster care.

2008 opened a new chapter in programming as we opened the county's first Transitional Living Program for homeless youth, called the Housing Scholarship Program (HSP), which is housed within our Youth Outreach Program. A scattered site apartment program for participants in Youth Outreach, the HSP provides rent and utilities and staff support for a period of 12-18 months. All youth who are awarded a housing scholarship will be working or going to school full-time (or a combination of these) and be involved with the Youth Outreach Program. In this way, skills are strengthened, goals are set, strategies for success are developed, and plans for being a 'good neighbor' are fostered.

While these apartments are scattered throughout our community, they are also in the same neighborhoods in which these youth had been living, though now they will be able to maintain stable housing, enhancing the neighborhoods in which they reside. The overriding goal is that youth exit this program ready to be self-sufficient, contributing members of society, and assets to their respective neighborhoods.

Also in 2008, The Learning Web began providing life skills training to adolescent youth in foster care under a contract with the Tompkins County Department of Social Services (DSS). We have always felt a need to expand services to "at risk" adolescents. Often, we see younger youth whose behaviors and lack of parental support are leading them to homelessness and crisis as they reach their mid-teens. We want to provide the intervention needed to prevent at risk youth from entering Youth Outreach later in adolescence. The combination of independent living skills (Youth Outreach) and career exploration and apprenticeships (CCEAP) is an ideal offering of prevention and intervention for youth in foster care. Using a long-term approach, youth are engaged in the program and offered an array of services and activities that creates community connections for this population, preparing them for success as they transition to independence.

The Web's Board of Directors is the main governing body of the organization responsible for policy, while the Web's Executive Director has the responsibility of policy implementation and full oversight authority for the organization.

The Learning Web has an impressive history of collaboration with higher education, school districts, community-based organizations, local government, and the private sector. Examples of successful collaborations include: The Learning Web-Cornell Minority Apprenticeship Program; the Occupational Non-Traditional Opportunities Program (ON-TOP), a joint work experience program with Cornell University, the Building Trades Unions at Cornell, and the Ithaca Youth Bureau; Ben & Jerry's Youth Scoops Inc., the first Ben & Jerry's "partnershop" franchise owned and operated for more than 15 years by The Learning Web; and the Partnership for Youth Program involving the Web, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the Groton School District to integrate school and community-based activities to benefit at risk youth.

The Learning Web's reputation for delivering innovative, effective programming with integrity, quality, and accountability- both to funders and the community - is excellent. In 1992, the Web was a recipient of a New York State Eleanor Roosevelt Service Award, and Governor Cuomo called it a model program, stating that incorporating community volunteers as mentors "raises public awareness of acute social problems and develops new approaches to meeting human needs."

Approximately 90% of agency funding comes from federal, state, and local government including: Tompkins County Youth Services, NYS Office of Children and Family Services, NYS Bureau of Housing Services, the federal Health and Human Services - Administration for Children and Families, the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency and the Joint Youth Commission of the Town of Ithaca and the Villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights. The remaining 10% comes from the United Way of Tompkins County, Share Our Strength, private foundations, fundraising events, and individual contributions.

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