The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) will use a $1 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to reshape law enforcement training. CCCS’s law enforcement academy curriculum and training project team will review current course objectives, program requirements and instructor techniques to identify opportunities to embed a focus on social justice. The redesigned curriculum will be offered to academy cadets and delivered statewide to current officers.
An early review of Colorado’s peace officer standards and training curriculum indicates that only eight credit hours of the required 556 total credit hours focus on ethics and anti-bias policing issues.
“Our commitment to our students and to our communities is to improve lives and increase opportunity through education. We acknowledge that as the state’s largest provider of post-secondary training and workforce education, we have a responsibility to re-examine our law enforcement curriculum that prepares hundreds of new police officers each year,” said CCCS Chancellor Joe Garcia.
He added that the grant will “help us move our initiative forward and empower us to make a lasting impact on the health and safety of our communities.”
Georgia
With a combined $50,000 in funding, Athens and Lanier technical colleges can better help students facing hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic. The funding comes from United Way and the Athens Area Community Foundation, which partnered to start a Covid community response fund.
The new funding means students at the colleges can get help paying for transportation and necessary textbooks, among other necessities.
“By removing barriers that prohibit students from completing their programs, we can ensure our next round of graduates can enter into the workforce with the knowledge, experience and preparedness they need to create a lasting career here in our community,” said Kay Keller, president and CEO of United Way of Northeast Georgia.
Maryland
Two new scholarships have been established at the College of Southern Maryland (CSM).
A memorial scholarship honoring CSM employee Kevin Phillips was established by his wife to assist CSM students with disabilities. Phillips was a maintenance mechanic at CSM who died this summer.
“Kevin worked hard to make sure that facilities at the college were maintained to ADA standards and he always provided unstinting encouragement to students with learning differences and/or disabilities,” Regina Phillips said about her husband. “Kevin genuinely believed that there was every reason to believe that these students could succeed at CSM.”
So far, $6,565 has been raised for the Kevin Sean Phillips Memorial Scholarship Fund.
The Timothy Scott Moore Construction Management Memorial Scholarship will provide financial support to students in CSM’s construction management technology program. Moore spent his entire career in the construction industry.
“By providing assistance to local College of Southern Maryland students, Tim will remain connected to the Southern Maryland community, where he worked and resided for decades,” said his wife, Lisa Moore. “This scholarship celebrates the union of his interests in education, construction and community involvement.”
CSM has raised $1,250 for this memorial scholarship.
Massachusetts
Bunker Hill, Cape Cod, Massasoit, North Shore and Northern Essex community colleges are among 47 educational institutions in Massachusetts to receive Skills Capital Grants. The colleges will use the grants to update equipment and expand student enrollment in career education programs.
The community colleges receiving a piece of $11.7 million pie will expand and enhance health care, IT/computer science and culinary and hospitality programs. The grants to the colleges range from $250,000 to $400,000.
North Carolina
JPMorgan Chase has awarded two grants totaling $735,000 to Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC). With $500,000, CPCC will develop new online training pathways in IT fields, including cybersecurity, health IT and forensic accounting. And a $235,000 grant will provide sub-grants to 11 Mecklenburg County nonprofit organizations that are helping people affected by the pandemic through services such as housing, food, healthcare, legal assistance and technology.
“Central Piedmont does not just educate students; it also identifies the needs of the surrounding community and provides the tools and the programs to address them. We’re pleased to partner with the college to help the residents of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County thrive,” said Dekonti Mends-Cole, vice president of corporate responsibility at JPMorgan Chase.
Washington
South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) received its largest gift in school history: $2.5 million from the Bruno and Evelyne Betti Foundation.
The Betti gift directs $1.5 million as an endowed scholarship supporting professional technical students at SPSCC. The gift also directs $1 million toward developing a new nursing simulation space. To honor these gifts, SPSCC will rename one of its buildings the Bruno & Evelyne Betti Automotive & Welding Center, and it will name the second floor of its health center the Bruno & Evelyne Betti Healthcare Simulation Lab.
