OICA and OIC International are a network of employment and training programs located across the United States and abroad bound together by a common goal: to serve the economically dependent and the un/under-employed. Reverend Leon Howard Sullivan (1922-2001) founded the first OIC in an abandoned jailhouse in Philadelphia in 1964.

Aware of the frustrations of the poor people in Harrisburg, and after hearing about a grass roots manpower-training program that had started a year earlier in Philadelphia, Reverend Franklin L. Henley, pastor of the St. Paul's Baptist Church,  called together the black ministers of Dauphin County in November 1965.

During the meeting, he explained OIC’s philosophy and received a commitment from the ministers to start an OIC in Harrisburg. That year, OIC of Dauphin County (as it was originally named) was founded. A fundraiser was held and within two months the first classes started. Support for the project grew from the private and public sectors. Others also joined and Harrisburg OIC became the second such organization in the state and third in the nation.

OIC  offered hope, opportunity, and employment potential through academic remediation and vocational skills training to many who previously had been discouraged because they were considered untrainable and unemployable.

Through the years, Tri-County OIC has grown. We have taught classes at more than 75 locations in multiple counties (Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry, and York). OIC offers recruitment, outreach, basic literacy skills, training, vocational skills training, job development, counseling, and placement services to hundreds of students each year.

• OIC remains a grass-roots organization that changes to meet the needs of its students while maintaining the philosophy of its founder.
• OIC believes in the right of every person to live a life of dignity and self-respect.
• OIC offers every person the opportunity to begin to claim that right.
• OIC trains people for life.

OIC International

OIC International’s mission is to build self-reliance and entrepreneurship through sustainable technical and vocational skills development.

OIC International’s vision is to lead the way in creating self-reliant communities comprised of empowered and engaged individuals who improve their quality of life and alleviate poverty.