As part of the CoPro2.0 initiative, short for College Promise 2.0, the grant will support research, programming, and scaling equitable, financially sustainable community college promise program activities in the region. Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) is one of 11 organizations in the U.S. selected to receive a share of 2.6 million in funding from The Kresge Foundation.
“We are grateful to the Kresge Foundation for recognizing that students in our region need support beyond free tuition to make it through college successfully,” said Dr. Carlos Ayala, President & CEO at GIA. “GIA is partnering with the San Bernardino Community College District and Cal-SOAP to pilot a Completion Coaching Program to help our students navigate college and access basic needs support, eliminating barriers to college completion and closing equity gaps.”
GIA will utilize the funds to improve college persistence and completion through a Completion Coaching Program. Funding will also support colleges to review successes and challenges, seek evidence of program efficacy, and align around best practices, especially those that support non-traditional students and students from historically marginalized communities.
GIA will work closely with Kresge and College Promise to exchange actionable information to shape more equitable and financially sustainable Promise programs for students in the Inland Empire and other regions across the country.
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information, visit kresge.org.
Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) is a regional, collective impact organization that works to achieve educational and economic equity in the Inland Empire. GIA accomplishes this by serving as a collective impact (backbone) organization that supports a cross-sector network of education, government, nonprofit, and business institutions in the Inland Empire, all collectively working towards a shared vision of educational and economic success. GIA researches issues and opportunities, resources innovations and solutions, and connects diverse stakeholders across the two-county region of the Inland Empire. Learn more at inlandempiregia.org.