Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 24, 2023: Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), with support from Lumina Foundation, is convening forward-thinking community colleges and their industry partners in a first of-its-kind community of practice, Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP). ACE-UP seeks to address growing postsecondary and labor market disparities by bringing together community college and industry leaders to design and uplift tangible strategies to align education and training, increase access to employment, and advance equitable employment outcomes. The community of practice will be led by experts at Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, alongside companion research and documentation by the Urban Institute.
Seventeen applicants have been selected to participate in ACE-UP. These community colleges represent a highly diverse set of institutions serving different geographies, sizes, industries of focus, target learners, and interests in expanding equity. Participating institutions are as follows: Arkansas State University, Newport (Arkansas), Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (Massachusetts), Bluegrass Community and Technical College (Kentucky), Central Carolina Community College (North Carolina), Central New Mexico Community College (New Mexico), City Colleges of Chicago (Illinois), Everett Community College (Washington), Grand Rapids Community College (Michigan), J Sargeant Reynolds Community College (Virginia), Kalamazoo Valley Community College (Michigan), Kingsborough Community College (New York), Miami Dade College (Florida), Montgomery College (Maryland), Onondaga Community College (New York), Palomar College (California), South Central College (Minnesota), and SUNY Rockland Community College (New York). Of these institutions, four are recognized as Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), four are Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and one is a Primarily Black Institution (PBI).
“Lumina is committed to expanding access to high-quality degrees and credentials that help everyone, particularly adults of color, achieve their dreams. We are proud to support the ACE-UP project and look forward to working with participating colleges and partners at CSW [and Urban Institute] as they tackle racial disparities in key occupation and sectors,” said Kermit Kaleba, strategy director for employment-aligned credential programs at Lumina Foundation.
ACE-UP participants will begin meeting in February 2023 for ten virtual sessions, closing in summer of 2024. Five themes underpin the ACE-UP learning experience: advancing institutionalized equity, aligning policy and practices, cultivating employer partnerships, enhancing student services, and making data-driven decisions. Drawing on a spiraling curriculum design, these themes will emerge and re-emerge over the course of the community of practice, guiding discussion, lessons, and resources, with learning reinforced by invited guest researchers and practitioners from the field.
“We are excited to work with these community colleges and their industry partners to help them turn their goals to address equity gaps and meet the skill development needs of marginalized and underrepresented workers a reality,” said Melissa Goldberg, CSW’s director of competencies and credentials, and project lead. “We believe the sharing of resources and peer-to-peer networking will help to scale the good work already underway.”
Learn more about ACE-UP and the goals of the community of practice at www.ace-up.org.
About Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW): CSW is a national workforce policy nonprofit that catalyzes change in educational and labor market systems, policies, and practices to increase economic mobility, particularly for people of color and others historically excluded from success. For more than 30 years, CSW has focused on achieving scalable improvements in worker skills, lifelong learning, and job quality. CSW collaborates with change makers to develop strategies, identify evidence to inform strategies, build the capacity of organizations, manage initiatives, and evaluate lessons learned.
About Lumina Foundation: Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. The foundation envisions a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation’s need for talent through a broad range of credentials. Lumina’s goal is to prepare people for informed citizenship and for success in a global economy.
Comments are closed.