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History | OAI Team
| Facilities | Some
Recent Milestones
OAI, Inc. is a non-profit workforce development agency founded
in 1976 by our current president, Tipawan T-Q Reed.
Based on her knowledge of Southeast Asian languages and cultures
and her sensitivity to the needs of New Americans, she created
a comprehensive service delivery model that became the foundation
for today's OAI. She soon expanded her work to other disadvantaged
populations across the Chicago area, and today OAI delivers
training in a number of cities and states across the nation.
Following affiliations with other organizations, including Northern
Illinois and DePaul Universities, the former
“Office of Applied Innovations” became OAI, Inc.,
a freestanding 501(c)(3) agency, in April 2001.
The OAI team consists of a multi-talented, experienced group
of directors, senior managers and staff specialists. Our holistic
service philosophy, coupled with a realistic approach for creating
demand-driven job opportunities, results in high job retention
and a path to life-long careers for those we serve. Governance
and oversight is provided by an independent Board of Directors.
Excellent classroom and office facilities provide a broad range
of services to individual clients and to employers. OAI’s information
technology resources include up-to-date equipment and software and
the expertise needed to conduct business in today’s technology-driven
environment. As a major step toward bridging the digital divide
for our individual clients, OAI operates a growing Community Technology Center.
- In 2006 OAI was the only non-profit
organization awarded two large grants by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to train
clean-up workers, case managers and evacuees in the
hurricane affected gulf-coast region. OAI will train over
1,000 individuals in safety awareness, National Incident
Management System, and Mold Awareness through this program.
- Our environmental remediation training,
now in its 11th year of funding by NIEHS, was commended by the
Chicago South Suburban Mayors' Association and recognized by
proclamation of the City
Council of Kansas City, Missouri.
- In late 2002, the City of Chicago selected
OAI as one of three agencies to recruit and place 1,000
Chicagoans in jobs at the new, Ford Motor Company-connected
Chicago Manufacturing Campus.
- Since 2003, OAI has received multiple
large Chicago TIFWorks grants to upgrade the skills of
employees in small and mid-size businesses.
- Our 5-year “Bright Future”
Welfare-to-Work program, funded by the U.S. Department of
Labor from 1998 to 2003, achieved national acclaim, especially
in the healthcare industry.
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