Communications

• Communication and support at all levels is key to the successful implementation of the Bridging the Gap Model.
• Another recommendation is that we need to ensure that each person involved in Bridging the Gap knows what their role is from the beginning. We need to set out what is expected of each employment partner before the contract agreements are signed. Perhaps we can have the roles and responsibilities written on paper and signed, that way everyone would know what their role is. This is especially important for the employment partners.

General Approach

• It must be clearly understood by all partners, that doing things differently does not necessary make them wrong. The nice thing about participating in a pilot project is there is room to experiment with different strategies and ideas to determine what the magic formula will be to make the Bridging the Gap Model a success.

Bridging the Gap Co–ordinators

• Bridging the Gap Co–ordinators should have a strong combination of education and experience in co–ordination. They should also have excellent interpersonal skills. This Pilot Project was administered by Random North Development Association, but subcontracted to the partnering sites. In order for each site to have ownership and control over their individual programs, each Community Learning Network site interviewed and selected their Bridging the Gap Co–ordinators.
• Because this was a pilot, it was important to be consistent. Unfortunately, not all partnering sites did not follow the same job advertisement and use the same interviewing questions. This resulted in co–ordinators having different skillsets in different locations.