Front Range Community College is moving ahead with two initiatives that will help older students of color succeed academically as well as those who have been forced from their jobs because of COVID-19, President Andy Dorsey said.
FRCC is now part of the REACH Collaborative, which stands for Racial Equality for Adult Credentials in Higher Education. REACH Collaborative will provide $975,000 over two years for Colorado to focus on older Black, Hispanic and Native American students, according to Chalkbeat, an online publication that covers education issues.
Colorado joined the REACH Collaborative in September and will use those funds for grants to schools to increase graduation rates of older students by two percentage points, Chalkbeat states. The state currently doesn’t track graduation rates of older students, but Colorado’s education leaders plan to begin documenting the number, Chalkbeat said.
The Lumina Foundation funds the REACH Collaborative. Chalkbeat said that Colorado’s community colleges – including FRCC – don't provide as many resources for adults as it does for younger students. Community Colleges usually have to seek one-time grant programs for adults, with limited duration and impact.
Dorsey said the REACH Collaborative funding will help FRCC expand opportunities for older students. FRCC is the state’s largest community college with 28,000 students enrolled in three campuses, including Longmont.
“Supporting adult learners has always been a key focus for us as a community college,” Dorsey said. “These funds will help boost our ongoing outreach to – and support for – those students.”
In addition, FRCC just received a Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative grant for $850,000 to help the school reach out to people who’ve lost jobs due to the pandemic, Dorsey said.
FRCC was among 21 providers across the state awarded $15 million to help workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools will use their share of the $15 million to provide “wraparound” and financial support for students to access and complete their credential or degree within the grant term, according to a Colorado Department of Higher Education news release.
The $800,000 grant “will help many of the same students that REACH grant is designed to assist,” Dorsey said. “These two combined efforts will help make a real difference in supporting those folks in their education.”
