Colorado community college receives grant to support those not yet in school, or still seeking employment

The Community College of Aurora just got a big chuck of change to help young people who are not in school or working to reconnect with education and career opportunities. They hope it can help close what youth advocates call “the opportunity gap.”

There are lots of reasons people won’t seek education after high school.

“Some may not see it as a good investment at the time. Honestly, we also compete with the gig economy. Right? You see the money in your pocket immediately, and you think, ‘This is great money,’” said Clair Collins the vice president of Enrollment Success and Completion at the college. 

That kind of experience described by Collins is among many reasons college students don’t finish their degrees.

“Maybe, they have a family member that they’re the primary caretaker of,” Collins said. “Maybe, they feel that they cannot currently invest the time or money into going and pursuing a college education. Maybe, they’re a parent.”

But thanks to a new $100,000 grant from Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, the Community College of Aurora hopes to enable those people to invest in their future.

“What we see over time is that return on investment is better if students go to college,” Collins said.

The college plans on using the money to work with other organizations to reach out to young people to see why they aren’t going to college, then provide them resources and services they need.

“Also investing in some proactive system redesign so that students don’t have to self-identify as needing this help in the first place,” Collins said. “That they can just come to us and expect that their needs are going to be met.”

CCA says this will not only benefit the students they can help and the college, but also the state.

“Colorado is well poised to be a true economic engine, for the United States, and CCA wants to be a big part of that,” Collins said.