Effective Equity Messaging Strategies for Community Colleges

On Oct. 1, 2024, the Cor­po­ra­tion for a Skilled Work­force host­ed Equi­ty Mes­sag­ing Strate­gies for a Chang­ing DEI Land­scape: Insights from Col­leges & Pub­lic Fun­ders.

This free webi­nar dis­cussed Strate­gi­cal­ly Mes­sag­ing Equi­ty as a Post­sec­ondary & Work­force Imper­a­tive, a new report fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Pan­elists included:

• Keisha Jones, state direc­tor, Inclu­sive Excel­lence, NC Stu­dent Suc­cess Cen­ter, North Car­oli­na Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Sys­tem Office;
• Cheryl Mar­tin, man­ag­er, Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Invest­ments Unit, U.S. Depart­ment of Labor; and
• Melis­sa Gold­berg, direc­tor of Com­pe­ten­cies & Cre­den­tials, Cor­po­ra­tion for a Skilled Workforce.

Quanic Fullard, a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foun­da­tion, opened the webi­nar empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty col­leges for an increas­ing­ly diverse workforce.

“Near­ly half of [all] under­grad­u­ates attend com­mu­ni­ty col­leges,” said Fullard. ​“They active­ly seek out these two-year insti­tu­tions because they’re just a short dri­ve from their homes. They have open admis­sion poli­cies, and they also offer low­er tuition. Equal­ly impor­tant, these schools pro­vide stu­dents the flex­i­bil­i­ty to bal­ance work and oth­er respon­si­bil­i­ties. It’s also impor­tant to note that com­mu­ni­ty col­leges are trust­ed and vital play­ers in their local economies. They pro­vide skills train­ing to pre­pare the local workforce.”

Pan­elists dis­cussed find­ings from the report as well as the cru­cial role pub­lic fun­ders play in help­ing com­mu­ni­ty col­leges com­mit to equi­ty goals and ini­tia­tives. Dur­ing the ses­sion, pre­sen­ter Jen­ny Poole also high­light­ed new mes­sag­ing strate­gies col­leges use to empha­size the impor­tance of equi­ty in post­sec­ondary and work­force environments.

Learn how Casey is pro­mot­ing equi­ty-focused prac­tices in eval­u­a­tion and research