Policy Areas for Action
Community Colleges and Nonprofits Working Together Can Help Improve Outcomes for Low-Income Students
In 2008, the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative (WSI) began Courses to Employment, a three-year demonstration project designed to showcase the importance of community college-nonprofit partnerships in ‘addressing the special supports low-income adults need while they work and learn, and subsequently make employment advances.’ Putting Adult Learners on the Road to Success, a new video from WSI, features participants from two of the Courses to Employment partnerships, Training Futures/Northern Virginia Community College and Capital Idea/Austin Community College.
Maureen Conway of the Aspen Institute articulates the vision of Courses to Employment: “Low-income Americans want to work but they really need the opportunity to get the skills, credentials, and degrees that employers are looking for in today’s labor market. Community colleges and nonprofits working together can really make that opportunity a reality.”
For these students, many of whom are first-generation college students, a key component of the program is the impact it has on building their confidence and helping them realize their dream of attending college. Says one student, “I was the first person in my family to go to college and just the idea that there was something better out there…I had heard stories, but didn’t think that it was something that was possible for me or for my family.”
Using Federal Resources to Fund Career Pathways and Bridges
Check out our newly revised career pathways toolkit and learn how you can use it to discover new federal funding sources. READ MORE »
- Vickie Choitz and Marcie Foster | Sep 27, 2010 Five Strategies to Help Low-Income Adults and Youth Attain Community College Credentials
- Sep 15, 2010 Webinar: Helping Low-Income Adults and Disadvantaged Youth Earn Credentials and Build Careers: Leading Foundations Speak about Policy Priorities
- Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield | Sep 09, 2010 Comments on Department of Education Proposed Regulations on Gainful Employment
- Vickie Choitz | Nov 22, 2010 Webinar: Dollars and Sense - Using Federal Resources to Fund Career Pathways and Bridges
- Vickie Choitz, Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, Marcie W.M. Foster, Linda Harris, Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Neil Ridley, Julie Strawn | May 18, 2010 Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges: A Federal Policy Toolkit for States
- Elizabeth Lower-Basch and Abigail Newcomer | Jan 12, 2011 Federal Funding for Integrated Service Delivery
- Linda Harris & Amy Ellen Duke-Benfiled | Nov 30, 2010 Building Pathways to Postsecondary Success for Low-Income Young Men of Color
- Nov 19, 2010 Webinar: Dollars and Sense - Using Federal Resources to Fund Career Pathways and Bridges
- Vickie Choitz | Nov 04, 2010 Getting What We Pay For: State Community College Funding Strategies that Benefit Low-Income, Lower-Skilled Students
- Allegra Baider, Vickie Choitz, Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, Marcie W.M. Foster, Linda Harris, Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Neil Ridley, Julie Strawn | Oct 13, 2010 Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges: A Federal Policy Toolkit for States