San Antonio leadership sought to address the challenges faced by citizens who are under-educated and under-employed. This population experiences hurdles and barriers in their lives that have prevented them from continuing education and improved employment situations. Basic opportunities such as getting a GED, job searching, improving technical skills and English language education are often the basest of needs that go unfulfilled because of personal financial issues that have to be addressed first. City of San Antonio Department of Human Services (DHS) restructure led to the closure of adult learning facilities. City council adopted a budget proposal item to continue to serve adult learners in an alternative capacity. As such, DHS sought partnership with the library because it is a learning institution.

A program model was approved by city council and the library became the lead partner in providing job search assistance, GED and ESL course work, computer skills training, childcare assistance, community resource assistance, financial empowerment education and one-on-one onsite counseling. Each center is staffed with certified adult education specialists and community resource specialists. Adults receive one-on-one tutoring or can participate in small class sessions.

Since the programs were first opened in fall of 2014, users have completed more than 2,847 hours of course work and they have received 2,341 hours of tutoring. LEARN at SAPL has also begun to expand its reach by hosting job fairs that include local small businesses doing on-site hiring, training workshops, interview preparation sessions and more.