New dropout recovery charter: It's all about giving people traction

When officials at Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana took a look around their workforce, what did they see? 

Dropouts — and lots of them.

Now, building on a social business strategy that has always been about helping people help themselves, the Goodwill has opened a charter school intended for dropouts and likely dropouts.  

"It's all about giving people traction," Scott Bess, chief operating officer of Goodwill Education Initiatives, which runs the Excel Center, told The Indianapolis Star. "We want them to say, 'I can get my diploma and have three or four (college) classes under my belt, then I'm good. Now I can do the rest on my own. I have a start.' "