HESC To Promote College Access for Neediest Students
Ken Storms
HESC is proud to have been named the lead agency for administering the new federal College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) Program in New York State. The grant will provide over $8 million during the next two years to fund programs that increase the number of low-income, minority, and underserved students prepared to apply for, and succeed in college.To achieve this goal HESC will establish a multifaceted New York College Access Network (NYCAN) – a network of schools, colleges, community-based organizations, education agencies, and other organizations that will share the work of guiding high-need students toward higher education success. NYCAN activities will be coordinated with New York’s larger statewide effort to meet P-16 achievement goals.
HESC will use CACG funds to identify, coordinate, encourage, and enrich the activities of NYCAN organizations. In addition, HESC will develop sub-grants for new products, programs, and services that will help the highest need students.
Some of the activities that HESC will support through the CACG are:
1. Professional development training and support for front-line providers serving the needs of students/families at or below the federal poverty level. These will include school counselors, college financial aid administrators and admissions reps, and education counselors of community organizations.
2. School-college partnership pilot sites. Selected through a competitive RFP process, CACG will fund partnership pilot programs to establish or expand imaginative, successful secondary-to-postsecondary bridges for the highest-need students and to adapt these successful strategies to other institutions, statewide and nationally.
3. Small-scale sub-grants to local schools, agencies, and community-based organizations to provide targeted support for specific college access projects and services that will help high-need students and families meet measurable goals.
4. A statewide college access and success public information campaign to reinforce and support NYCAN activities in the target communities, and provide online resources for participating organizations, students and families.
HESC has begun to produce training programs and public events as part of its CACG activities. HESC has also begun to accept RFP's for small sub-grants (less than $50,000) under the CACG program. RFP's for the small sub-grants are being accepted until the deadline of January 6, 2009. HESC will solicit proposals for large sub-grants (up to $200,000), beginning in January.
Prospective bidders that are interested in, and capable of, providing the required services must contact Chet Fiske, Contracts Management Specialist, at HESC, 99 Washington Avenue, Room 1500, Albany, NY 12255, phone: 518-402-3662, or by e-mail at cfiske@hesc.org.