Leveraging Community College Innovations for Opportunity Youth: Reflections from Boston
By Kathy Hamilton, Boston PIC, and Kristin McSwain, Boston Opportunity Agenda
The following was shared in response to the plenary session, “Postsecondary Pathways: Leveraging Community College Innovations For Opportunity Youth” that was held at the OYIF April 2016 Convening.
This plenary was a breath of fresh air for those of us who have been active in the Opportunity Youth and College Completion movements. It was so heartening to hear someone center stage at a national conference finally connecting work that, despite its interconnection, can become siloed. In Boston, we play an active role in both movements. Success Boston, our college completion initiative, is a seven-year-old, cross-sector, collective-impact, initiative with a programmatic component that provides postsecondary persistence coaches to 1,000 Boston Public Schools graduates at local colleges. At the same time, several local HSE programs have adopted the Back-on-Track model, following HSE graduates into college with academic and social supports. We are using both models as a foundation for the Boston OY work. Read more
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