Profile: Life Skills Centers

The traditional public high school isn't for everyone. That's why a company named White Hat Management founded Life Skills Centers. These alternative education charter schools accommodate students who are experiencing difficulties with the routine of traditional public schools. To enroll in a Life Skills Center, a student of high school age, has dropped out, or be at-risk of dropping out, from high school.

Life Skills Center students are young people who have goals and dreams like all of us. However, they faced challenges along the way that made them put those aspirations on hold. In life, they are a parent, brother, sister, friend, care giver, son or daughter who may be the first one in the family to graduate from high school. They face a variety of issues everyday, but still desire to better themselves with a high school diploma. Life Skills Center students come from every walk of life and every demographic classification.

Our students are multiracial, multi cultural and multilingual. While unique individuals, every student shares a common thread: they are the invisible members of our society who have few options, were significantly dissatisfied with their school of last attendance along with the education they were receiving and most often felt unwelcome and branded as losers or troublemakers. Whether they felt they weren't safe, weren't respected by teachers and staff, or weren't communicated with sufficiently, every one of our students had dropped out or was considered high-risk of dropping out of their former school.

• There are 37 Life Skills Centers which are located in communities across Ohio, including in Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Elyria, Middletown, Springfield, Toledo, Warren, and Youngstown; as well as in Phoenix, AZ, Denver and Colorado Springs, CO, Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan, and Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Tampa, and St. Petersburg, Florida..
• Our centers have helped more than 6,200 students enhance their lives by earning a state recognized high school diploma and a job.
• New centers are opening every year.