T.L.L. Temple Foundation Awards Texas Success Center $2.2 Million for East Texas Colleges
Austin, TX - The T.L.L. Temple Foundation awarded $2.2 million over five years to the Texas Success Center, a Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) division, to improve young adults’ postsecondary and employment outcomes in rural areas of East Texas.
Through the foundation’s generous support, the Talent Strong East Texas Strategy will strengthen, scale, and expand guided pathways into a regional pipeline strategy targeting postsecondary degrees or credentials that lead to high-demand, high-wage jobs. The goal is to upskill East Texans, especially students who are Black, Latinx, or from low-income communities, by building sustainable pipelines that create a steady flow of valuably credentialed workers for thriving East Texas businesses.
“There is an urgent need to enable well-trained East Texans to enter meaningful careers with family-sustaining wages while providing an opportunity for them to remain local and contribute to a healthy economy,” says Dr. Cynthia Ferrell, Vice President of TACC. “Community colleges can serve the people of East Texas by providing skills training and well-defined pathways that align with local workforce demands. We are fortunate to have wonderful funding partners like T.L.L. Temple Foundation who are deeply dedicated and invest in this important work.”
The strategy will actively support workforce ecosystem partners, including East Texas community colleges, local workforce boards, economic development corporations, multiple critical employers, 4-year transfer universities, and independent school districts.
“The Texas Success Center’s primary focus is the social and economic mobility of community college students. We are grateful to our philanthropic partners that remain committed to funding reform aimed at whole-college transformation,” said Dr. Martha Ellis, Interim President & CEO of TACC. “This grant is designed to end the burden of widespread poverty and unemployment on East Texans and their economy.”
“Community colleges play a critical role in educating our future workforce. Investing in Texas Pathways will ensure more East Texans succeed in college and that our region thrives economically,” says Dr. Wynn Rosser of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation.
The implementation of this strategy will begin on September 1, 2022, and run through August 31, 2027.
The Texas Success Center, a member of the national Student Success Center Network, supports TACC colleges’ efforts to improve student success and directs Texas Pathways, a statewide strategy focused on building capacity for community colleges to design, implement, and continuously improve structured academic and career pathways at scale, for all students. For more information please visit, https://tacc.org/tsc/what-we-do.