Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America

The Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America (OICA) is a national network of employment and training centers which serve the hard core poor and unemployed.

The Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America was founded in 1964 by Reverend Leon Howard Sullivan in an old abandoned jailhouse at 19th and Oxford Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The organization worked to help those individuals with special barriers to employment, such as ex-offenders, former alcoholics and drug abusers, high school drop-outs, veterans, older workers and women. The OICA philosophy and concept embraced an innovative system of teaching basic literary skills, combined with supportive counseling, referral services and short non-graded courses of training for the functional occupational trades.

The success of the Philadelphia prototype soon attracted national attention. To meet the ever increasing requests for technical assistance from interested communities across the country, OICA established a national Institute on July 1, 1966. Shortly afterwards an Extension Service was added to assist those non-federally funded OICA locals. In addition, a Management Training School was created to provide instruction to managers on effective day to day operation of their respective OICA centers.

In 1971 the National Institute, National Extension Service and the Management Training School were reorganized and incorporated into a more comprehensive organization under the name of the Opportunities Industricalization Centers of America. In March of 1971,OICA received $10 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Labor to establish additional programs in other cities.

Despite federal spending cutbacks for social programs during the 1970s and the 1980s, OICA continued to provide a broad aray of services to disadvantaged groups. Noteably successful programs include the Adult Armchair and Urban Career Education programs which provided alternatives to traditional educational systems, and the Community Investment Cooperatives Program which provided opportunities for minorty business ownership and community revitalization.

Since 1964, OICA has trained and placed over one million individuals in productive jobs, and it remains one of the largest job training institutions in the nation. In 1985, and again in 1988 OICA reorganized to more effectively accomplish its mission. Today OICA provides technical assistance to over 75 affiliates nationwide in areas of program development, fiscal mangement and management information systems.

From the description of Records, 1964-1988. (Temple University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 122526099