Bill Strickland

Bill Strickland was flunking high school until he peeked into an art teacher's door and watched him make pottery.

The encounter sparked a teacher-student relationship that ignited Mr. Strickland's own confidence.

"Violence. Drugs. Failure. Kids see that and assume that's the best they can do," Mr. Strickland said in a telephone interview from his Manchester, Pa., office. "The message is to change the environment."

Mr. Strickland, author of "Make the Impossible Possible" and recipient of the White House's Coming Up Taller Award, will be the speaker Tuesday at Mayor Ron Littlefield's Power of One luncheon at The Chattanoogan.

"He's an example of what people can do when they have a mind to work," said Beverly Cosley, executive director of the city's Office of Multicultural Affairs. "Just to see from where he came. Many odds were against him. He didn't have the educational support, but it happened because someone took a moment in time with this young man."

Ms. Cosley said the author will bring a thought-provoking message to Chattanooga.

Mr. Strickland said his presentation will focus on his work as the president and CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corp. in Pittsburgh. The organization provides vocational programs for the unemployed and an arts program for at-risk school kids.

He's been doing the program more than 40 years with nationally recognized success. Through the program, the unemployed have gotten jobs and formerly at-risk students eventually have graduated from college, he said.

"We can recover people that we have written off," he said. "They have value, some contributions to make."

At the Power of One luncheon, he plans to explore the idea of starting such a program in Chattanooga.

"Other cities are interested in whether we can take some of the success we've had and build it in other communities," he said.