COLUMBUS, Ind., Aug. 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ten partnerships have been selected by CivicLab to participate in a three-year incubator to rethink and revitalize their communities by strengthening rural higher education and employment systems. Communities participating in this effort are from states across the country, including Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina.
Supported by Ascendium Education Group and ECMC Foundation, the $2.6M grant initiative provides training, technical assistance, and direct financial support for system-level strategies that create stronger education-to-employment pathways aligned to future economies.
After a national call for proposals, ten rural partnerships were selected through a rigorous review process. The communities selected showed a readiness to focus on rural redevelopment in order to strengthen the communities they call home for the future.
Each partnership includes higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, employers, public agencies, economic development agencies, and other local stakeholders that work together to improve education and workforce outcomes. To be selected, partnerships were required to submit prior work and future plans that demonstrate the community’s readiness to achieve systems change.
“We were fortunate to receive many strong applications from interested communities,” said Amber Fischvogt, director at CivicLab. “The ten that were selected brought together the necessary partners in their community and demonstrated their readiness for a new type of conversation about rural talent development and systems building.”
The rural partnerships selected for the initiative include:
Berkeley Chamber Rural Initiative – Berkeley County, S.C.
Convening Organization: Berkeley Chamber Educational Outreach
Focus: Berkeley, Charleston, & Dorchester Counties
Community Education Coalition – Bartholomew County, Ind.
Convening Organization: Columbus Learning Center Management Corporation
Focus: 8-county region in south central Indiana
Expect More Tehama – Tehama County, Calif.
Convening Organization: Expect More Tehama
Focus: Tehama County
FutureMakers Coalition at Collaboratory – Southwest Florida, Fla.
Convening Organization: Collaboratory
Focus: Hendry and Glades Counties
IMPACT Independence – Independence County, Ark.
Convening Organization: IMPACT Independence
Focus: Independence County
John Jay WorkReady Institute – Jay County, Ind.
Convening Organization: John Jay Center for Learning
Focus: Jay County
Our Future in UNiSON – Anston & Union Counties, N.C.
Convening Organization: Wingate University
Focus: Anston & Union Counties
Southeast Ohio Career System Builders – Southeast Ohio, Ohio
Convening Organization: Building Bridges to Careers, Inc.
Focus: 25-county region in southeast Ohio
Tuscarawas Valley Industry Sector Partnership – Tuscarawas County, Ohio
Convening Organization: Tuscarawas County Economic Development Corporation
Focus: Tuscarawas County
Western Montana Care Workforce Collaborative – Western & Central Montana, Mont.
Convening Organization: University of Montana
Focus: Western & Central Montana
The initiative launched in July 2024 with teams from each partnership attending a three-day institute focused on stakeholder engagement and system building tools. A total of six institutes will be provided over the three-year period. The cohort will continue to meet virtually every other month to share ideas, resources, and receive technical assistance.
Participating communities will also receive new data sets and methodologies to support a novel approach to economic development. CivicLab will provide its spatial diversity census books and new methods of qualitative data collection and analysis to each community, supplementing their existing use of labor market data.
“Communities have historically relied solely on labor market projections when making economic and talent development decisions,” explained Dakota Pawlicki, director of Talent Hubs at CivicLab. “By bringing new data sets rooted in place and people, we are equipping rural communities with a comprehensive and home-grown approach to community vitality.”
Each partnership will co-create a workplan that builds upon their existing efforts and implement strategies towards their unique goals. These plans go beyond organizational strategic plans, focusing entirely on what a community can achieve only by working together.
About Ascendium Education Group: Ascendium Education Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to helping people reach the education and career goals that matter to them. Ascendium invests in initiatives designed to increase the number of students from low-income backgrounds who complete postsecondary degrees, certificates and workforce training programs, with an emphasis on first-generation students, incarcerated adults, rural community members, students of color and veterans. Ascendium's work identifies, validates and expands best practices to promote large-scale change at the institutional, system and state levels, with the intention of elevating opportunity for all. For more information, visit https://www.ascendiumphilanthropy.org.
About CivicLab: CivicLab, (a program of the Community Education Coalition) is a nonprofit institute dedicated to advancing the practice of civic collaboration and leading complex social systems. CivicLab’s approach is to: 1) learn what makes community collaboration work at its best, 2) document the discoveries, and 3) teach and share the practices broadly. The purpose of the work is to help communities increase their collective capacity—which is their ability to get things done, together. Since its inception, CivicLab has partnered with over 300 communities and organizations across the U.S. and trained more than 14,000 leaders of foundations, educational institutions, government, corporations, and community development organizations.
CivicLab is the home of Talent Hubs and the National Talent Network. The Talent Hub designation signifies that a local or regional cross-sector partnership has met rigorous standards for creating environments that attract, retain, and cultivate talent, particularly among today’s students, many of whom are people of color, the first in their families to go to college, and from low-income households. The designation serves both as an aspirational target for other cities to aim for and a platform from which cities designated as Talent Hubs can build. The National Talent Network is a group of nearly 100 cross-sector partnerships working collaboratively to connect learning to economic opportunity in the places they call home.
About ECMC Foundation: ECMC Foundation is a national foundation whose North Star goal is to eliminate equity gaps in postsecondary completion by 2040 so that underserved learners have greater opportunity for social and economic mobility. The Foundation’s mission is to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation. ECMC Foundation makes strategic grants and program-related investments to support both nonprofit and for-profit ventures, guided by a strategic framework which aims to advance systemic change by removing barriers to postsecondary completion; building the capacity of organizations, institutions, and systems; and transforming the postsecondary ecosystem. Learn more about ECMC Foundation by visiting www.ecmcfoundation.org and our parent company, ECMC Group, by visiting www.ecmcgroup.org.
Media Contact:
Dakota Pawlicki
CivicLab
815-245-3222
dpawlicki@civiclab.org
For more information, visit https://www.rurallearningsystems.org.
