Urban universities have long faced a critical challenge to help K-12 schools, students, and families effectively access a college education. While colleges and universities have embraced strategies such as charter and partner schools, these interventions do not always result in a robust pipeline of students entering the higher education system.…

Academic and public libraries are facing the challenge of finding new avenues of service and of creating value for their constituencies. This value is in the form of outcomes that result in bettering the people who use libraries and the community at large. The authors feel that librarians must find creative ways to make their communities better…

"The Road to Recovery: Projecting U.S. Job Growth and Higher Education Demand through 2020" (this issue, p26-29) presented six key indicators that highlighted the latest in education and employment needs for the success of the future jobs market. While the U.S. economy is growing, questions still remain: What skills do employers value…

"Linking Workforce Development to Economic Development: A Casebook for Community Colleges" is a compilation of best practice examples, which illustrate what it takes for community colleges to achieve their goal of helping people acquire education and skills, helping employers, supporting communities, and building the nation. The book is…

Americans for the Arts is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. Its survey shows that local arts agencies typically serve their communities through programming to the public, services to artists and arts organizations, and developing and managing cultural facilities. Community colleges share many of the…

This document examines incentives and obstacles to partnerships between nonprofit organizations and community colleges. Aside from some service learning collaborations, partnerships between community colleges and nonprofit groups are rare. Reasons include: (1) many community college administrators bring a private-sector orientation with them from…

This report to the Santa Monica College (SMC) Board of Trustees focuses on the college's programs and achievements, especially as they relate to community development, and proposes a new city government and school relationship with respect to educational finance. The report proposes creation of the Santa Monica Educational Authority (SMEA), a…

Discusses the role and responsibilities of community colleges within their communities. Highlights the colleges' role in workforce development, celebrating the value of work, cooperating with other community institutions to provide training and planning activities, and stimulating the community to appreciate its diversity. Considers the role of…

In 1981, Jackson County, North Carolina, appeared on the first list of "distressed counties" in Appalachia. Since then, the rural county has made significant improvements by investing in its physical infrastructure (which also promotes tourism); fostering economic-development partnerships among governments, small businesses, and local…

This report addresses the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) from the American Association of Community Colleges, which seeks to enhance the capacity of targeted community colleges to expand access to postsecondary education and help foster regional economic development. The Ford Foundation has made a decade-long commitment to community…

Chronicles the efforts of North Carolina's James Sprunt Community College to improve the quality of life for residents of its service area through the use of community-based programming (C-BP). Reviews the C-BP process utilized at the college, highlighting the formation of three planning teams charged with developing coalitions, strategic plans,…

Virginia's Southeastern Community College (SCC) examined its service area and performance in the late 1980s and found that its enrollments had dropped while area unemployment rates were rising. Local officials estimated that nearly 2,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost in the service area--Columbus County--since the passage of the North American…

The Arcadia Commons (AC), in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is a business-education park developed through the combined efforts of Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), area business and financial institutions, and the Kalamazoo Public Museum, who together formed Downtown Kalamazoo Incorporated (DKI). KVCC's involvement resulted from the need to find…

This article describes the formation of an educational partnership developed in a rural, Appalachian, coal-mining community. Williamson Main Street, Inc., a downtown revitalization program, and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College (Southern) combined their efforts to create the Tug Valley Economic Development Institute (TVEDI).…

Rural community colleges are faced with issues similar to their urban counterparts, but many challenges for rural schools are further exacerbated by limited resources, geographic isolation, and a static economy. This paper argues that the difference between success and failure can be the ability to create strong partnerships. Of the 15 colleges in…