In several cities Community Colleges and community groups are collaborating in creating entirely new certificate and Associate of Arts (AA) programs in Community Change Studies.. These programs offer students a combination of classes and field work which prepare them for careers as community organizers and community change agents, helping neighbors come together to work for better schools, improved services, and opportunities for advancement. In this way they offer a “double social benefit”: they prepare low-income and working class students for promising careers, and their graduates develop the commitment, skills and knowledge needed to organize and improve disadvantaged communities.

The Community Learning Partnership acts as the catalyst and support system for these new Community College programs. With support from several foundations, the Partnership is developing Community Change Studies programs in five cities (Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Baltimore and Hartford) while exploring expansion to several others. CLP's staff-members are well-prepared for this work as they all are nationally known for their experience with every aspect of community change work, from youth and community organizing to neighborhood development and service delivery, from school reform to job creation. They also have extensive experience in training, education, staff development and leadership development in low-income communities, and they involve a team of equally expert consultants as needed.

In each city the Partnership has brought community leaders, organizers and trainers together with academics to create local partnerships.Together they are designing new one- and two-year educational programs geared specifically to prepare people to work in disadvantaged communities.The graduates of these Community Change Studies programs will have exceptionally strong backgrounds for careers helping people bring about substantial change on issues of poverty, race and community-building.

The curricula combine experiential education, reading, classroom study, and reflective practice to create ambitious programs of practitioner education. These programs include courses in community organizing, group facilitation, working with groups, leadership education and organizational development.Through study and application, students also gain skills in participatory action research and popular education, and develop a thorough understanding of a community, its broader economic, social and governmental context, and alternative ways of bringing about change.

The courses are academic rather than vocational: they develop students’ historical and theoretical perspectives and their skills in analysis, critical thinking, strategy and reflective practice, while also giving them extensive practical experience.Students develop the knowledge, skills, and sophistication to help people bring about substantial positive change.The Community Change programs are articulated so their graduates may pursue more advanced education if and when they wish.

These programs directly address the talent crisis which is afflicting nonprofits throughout the country, especially in lower income communities.They thus have the potential to strengthen the nonprofit sector so that it, in turn, can help alleviate poverty and expand opportunities.

The Community Learning Partnership currently plays several roles in developing these new academic programs. These roles include:

1. Exploring the potential of alternative sites for developing Change Studies programs, involving both prefeasibility and feasibility stages in promising places, catalyzing the development of local partnerships between nonprofits and Community Colleges and other institutions focusing on adult education;
2. Providing seed money and intensive staff assistance to those partnerships, helping them gain the local as well as national staff support they need for planning and program development, developing resources for start-up and staffing, and developing curricula and field placements;
3. Also helping sites develop plans for recruiting students with limited incomes and attracting resources which will give them access to the remedial education, counseling, tuition and income support which will help them stay in school and graduate;
4. Bringing sites together with their counterparts and other resource people to overcome their isolation and have opportunities for mutual learning, support, and collaboration, including working together to expand Community Change Studies programs to other campuses; and
5. Developing curricula and, if resources permit, the case studies, articles, other reading materials, and audio and video podcasts which educators need to provide students with greater access to learning from history, theory and field experience.

We currently are exploring expansion to Chicago, Portland, the Bay Area and cities in the South and Southwest, with the goal of expanding to 15-20 sites within three years.At the same time we plan to work intensively on the development of model curricula and the teaching materials which are needed for this expanding field of study.

To carry out this ambitious strategy, we have assembled an excellent central team as well as strong partners in the cities where we work. Our Executive Director is Andrew Mott, the former Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, which is known nationally for its capacity-building and leadership development assistance to low-income community groups throughout the country. Mr. Mott's report on University Education for Community Change: A Vital Strategy for Progress on Poverty, Race and Community-Building analyzed the current stage of higher education related to community change and provided the base for the Learning Partnership’s work. Ken Rolling formerly was Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Parents for Public Schools, a national organization which supports parent organizing for school reform in 18 sites in 11 states. Soyun Park is the former Executive Director of ONE — a highly regarded youth organizing group which worked on school reform and other issues in Denver — and former Co-Director of the Colorado Progressive Coalition.

Other key partners include:

• Dr. Denise Fairchild, Chairman, Community and Economic Development Department, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College; and Benjamin Torres, Deputy Director of CD Tech;
• William O’Brien, Executive Director, the Harriet Tubman Institute in Detroit, and Dr. Gregory Markus, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
• Dr. Josiah Ricardo, Coordinator, Social Services Program, Capital Community College in Hartford;
• Dr. Laurien Alexandre, Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Director of the PhD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University;
• Dr. Cynthia Ward, Dean of Empire State Colleges Metropolitan Center in New York City; and
• Dr. Anna McPhatter, Chair, Social Work Department, Morgan State University in Baltimore.

We are excited about the initiatives that the Obama Administration is taking to support Community Colleges as career pathways for disadvantaged young people. We are looking to meet with key federal agency officials to discuss our work and to explore whether there is any fit between the Obama Administration’s priorities and our goals and strategies in developing these “double social benefit” pathways into careers of community service.