Page 51 - Innovation Delaware 2019

THE FUTURE OF INNOVATION
ANDREW MCKNIGHT AND HIS CHALLENGE PROGRAM PROVIDE JOB TRAINING FOR AT-RISK YOUTH.
CHALLENGE PROGRAM
CHANGING THE WORLD BY:
GIVING AT-RISK KIDS AN ENTRY POINT TO THE JOB MARKET
Wilmington’s Challenge Program, which provides training in construc- tion skills for at-risk youth, is currently renovating a historic row home at 7th and Church and a bike shop at 16th
and Walnut. “We serve over 100 kids a year,” says Executive Director Andrew McKnight, who has been with the pro- gram from the start. In addition to trade skills, enrollees get help with things
like financial literacy, resume building, getting a GED or high school diploma, getting a driver’s license, and completing forklift or traffic flagger certifications.
“The first thing that I learned, and the most important lesson,” says McKnight, “was that we’re a social services organi- zation. The construction training is sec- ondary — what’s most important is the case management, to take care of all the barriers that folks have to employment. Getting meaningful skills is important but it’s not nearly as important as being able to show up every day on time, with a good attitude, with a good understand- ing of what it takes to hold a job.”
Students at the nonprofit face a wide variety of hurdles, including poverty, lack of access to transportation, and poor nutrition. But, over the years, Challenge Program has found a model that works. “If a kid shows up every day, shows up on time with a good attitude,” McKnight says, “we can find them a job.”
W.L. GORE AND ASSOCIATES
CHANGING THE WORLD BY:
REVOLUTIONIZING TECHNOLOGY USED IN SMARTPHONES, LAPTOPS
Founded in a Delaware basement in 1958 and still headquartered in Newark, W.L. Gore and Associates continues to add to its legacy of innovation. While Gore is well known for its water-repel- lant fabrics, long-lasting guitar strings and implanted medical devices, one of its newest inventions is a thermal in- sulating fabric, meant to be used with electronic devices such as smartphones.
GORE Thermal Insulation gives us- ers of electronic devices a cooler, more comfortable experience. It combines highly insulating aerogel particles with the mechanical strength and flexibility of GORE ePTFE membrane, which
is essentially a thin, flexible film that
has a thermal conductivity lower than that of air. This allows higher-power components, which operate at higher temperatures, to be incorporated into increasingly smaller devices. The film also reduces hot spots on electronic de- vices, shields human skin from excessive temperatures, protects heat-sensitive components to enable them to run at full capacity, and enables thinner device designs. GORE Thermal Insulation
is in use now on the Dell XPS 13-inch laptop. The company expects the technology will be used for cell phones, cameras, tablets and other devices as well. ID
Additional reporting by Roger Morris and Tina Irgang Leaderman
INNOVATION DELAWARE 49
GETTY IMAGES/RONSTIK
JOE DEL TUFO/MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY