The T. Rowe Price Foundation has provided a grant to the Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) to connect students in West Baltimore to jobs, community resources and success in higher education.
Through a $15,000 grant to the Baltimore City Community College, the T. Rowe Price Foundation will help BCCC assess and leverage the power of its existing partnerships to better understand student and community needs.
“Baltimore City Community College is grateful for T. Rowe Price Foundation’s generosity,” Dr. James H. Johnson, Jr., interim BCCC president said. “These funds will allow us to better fulfill our commitment to serving the community.”
With the grant, BCCC will hire Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS) to develop a Community Engagement Plan for the college to connect traditionally underserved residents of West Baltimore with the opportunities of a college education, workforce skills development, job attainment and increased access to community resources.
“We look forward to working with BCCC to develop their ability to harness the untapped brilliance and innovation that exists in the community in a way that uplifts people that historically have been exploited by systems of structural racism and oppression,” Dayvon Love, director of public policy for LBS, said.
BCCC will collaborate with LBS, which advocates for African Americans in Baltimore on a range of public policy interests, to develop surveys and utilize focus groups to help students in their quest for success and evaluate how to make BCCC resources more available to them. In so doing, BCCC will find new and innovative ways to connect with city residents seeking to enroll at the school.
"We are proud to partner with the BCCC and applaud the college’s commitment to extend beyond its campus to engage the broader community in a targeted manner,” said John Brothers, president of the T. Rowe Price Foundation. “BCCC leadership recognizes that its student body and employees benefit from partnerships and its relationship with the residents of West Baltimore.”
As an anchor institution in West Baltimore, BCCC offers 29 cost-effective Associate’s Degree and 16 Certificate programs in technology, business, engineering, health care, hospitality, teacher education and other fields.
Staying responsive to the needs of the community, BCCC is reorienting its programs toward Workforce Development, moving Baltimore City public high school graduates into higher education through the tuition-free Mayor’s Scholars Program and strengthening the college’s capacity-building through its affiliation with the Achieving the Dream network of more than 200 community colleges across the nation.
