Summit Academy Oic (SAOIC)

Summit Academy Oic is a non-profit vocational training and educational center based in north minneapolis with 50 years' experience helping twin cities' residents in economically depressed neighborhoods acquire the tools they need to become educated, employed, and self-supporting. Summit Academy is the only community-based vocational training and job-placement program in north minneapolis accredited by the council on occupational education and registered with the Minnesota higher education services office.at Summit Academy Oic, we believe the best social service program in the world is a job. Graduates from our adult education programs are given the opportunity to lift themselves up from a life of poverty and hopelessness onto a path that will lead to a better life for themselves and their families. Where before, these men and women were limited by chronic unemployment, a complete lack of resources, and in many cases, a lack of faith in themselves, they now have the chance to fundamentally change their circumstances by increasing their income and their quality of life. When adults work full-time living-wage jobs, they become role models to young adults and children, families become more stable, and the cycle that has kept their communities poor and crime-ridden is broken. These positive changes continue to ripple out even further into the larger community as fewer social services and incarceration costs are incurred and graduates begin to pay taxes. After receiving training in community healthcare, energy efficiency and green construction, these graduates have gone on to work in jobs that directly improve Minnesota's infrastructure.summit Academy offers adult education and support services that are tailored to the specific needs of the communities we serve. Our career and technology center provides pre-apprentice training in construction (hundred hard hats program), with specific tracks in carpentry and electrical work. The ctc also offers programs in medical administrative assistant and since fiscal 2019 we have introduced training in it careers including help desk support, network operations center, application development and cyber security. In addition to the post secondary offerings Summit offers a contextualized ged program that provides individuals without a high school diploma the opportunity to earn a ged in conjunction with attainting an advanced certificate in the aforementioned carrers. All career tracks are all supported with services that develop students' life skills and assist in job seeking, placement, and retention.summit serves the area youth from pre-school through high school with stem programming. Summit holds a monthly stem activity known as "stem saturday's' where age appropriate stem activities are lead by staff and volunteers. The stem saturdays culminate with an annual "stem fest' which is a day long festival of stem related topics, games, experiments and such, all intended to stimulate curiosity and interest in stem careers. In fiscal 2023, Summit served 1779 youth with the help of 93 volunteers. In this fiscal year (july 1, 2022- june 30, 2023), Summit's career and technology center served 911 adult students, and 424 obtained their ged or graduated with a vocational training certificate of completion. Over that time Summit placed 342 adults in employment. Job earnings for all programs are at a median of $21 per hour.