Site Aims to Link Valley Schools and Businesses

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With all the talk of job-shadowing programs, and the need for donations of paper and pencils, schools and businesses have had a frustrating time trying to link up.

That may soon change with the launch of Big BEN, the Business Educational Network, a Web site backed by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley that would serve as a key resource for bringing schools and businesses together.

“The biggest problem in getting the schools involved with business is matching the needs,” said Kenn Phillips, director of education and workforce development at the Economic Alliance. “Big BEN is an online matching of a business’ resources to a school’s needs.”

If an elementary school principal needs a volunteer to read during lunch for a literacy program, he or she can log onto the site and post a listing. Meanwhile, if a business had extra computers or outdated stationery, it could post the material on the site and a school in need could respond.

Through Big BEN, which is located in the education section of www.valleyofthestars.org, schools and businesses are given a password that allows them to go online and search postings, or type in a service or resource they need or are offering. One person at each school and one at each business will be designated a point person for the site.

The site will start out with the Valley’s 25 public high schools and expand to all public and private high schools by next year, Phillips said. The pilot site launched in February with a dozen area high schools. In March, businesses will sign on.

Earlier this year, Canoga High School proposed a mentor program, in which business people would come in once a week and work with students one on one. The program has been stalled, though, because of a lack of volunteers and an inability to connect with business people.

Phillips, who came to the Economic Alliance from Boeing Co., where he headed the company’s educational outreach programs, said he had many of the same problems in reverse when trying to reach schools.

“With a teacher’s in a class, you can’t call them. You can e-mail them, but when you’re looking for a point person to contact, it gets difficult,” Phillips said. “And a lot of businesses are not interested in doing a program with just one school, they want to do it for a number of schools.”

With Big BEN, a business simply posts a listing for a program and interested schools can respond.

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