MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Community College of Vermont (CCV) is proud to announce that it has received a $2.9m grant from the Ascendium Education Group, a national philanthropic non-profit, to expand its corrections education program.
The Ascendium grant will support the establishment of the Corrections Education, Development and Re-entry (CEDAR) Center, which will provide for the continuation of existing services with a focus on re-entry, academic persistence, and job placement. This includes growing the number of courses available to incarcerated students, providing job support, and exploring pathways into bachelor’s degree programs at Vermont State University.
“We are thrilled to begin the next chapter of our work with the Vermont Department of Corrections with support from Ascendium,” said CCV President Joyce Judy. “Most of the incarcerated population will eventually be released, and our goal is to help them develop the skills and knowledge they will need as they return to Vermont communities.”
CCV has been working with the Vermont Department of Corrections since 2017, when the J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation and the Vermont Community Foundation supported ReSET VT, which provided CCV courses to students at Northern State Correctional Facility. In 2020, CCV was named a Second Chance Pell school by the U.S. Department of Education, a designation that allows students who are incarcerated to receive Federal Pell Grants. In 2022, congressionally directed spending secured by Senator Bernie Sanders helped CCV create the Corrections Post-Secondary Education Initiative, which provides free CCV courses to Vermonters who are incarcerated and Department of Corrections staff at four of Vermont’s six correctional facilities.
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CCV is Vermont’s second-largest college, serving nearly 10,000 students each year. With statewide locations and extensive online learning options, our students don’t have to travel far from their communities to access our degree and certificate programs, workforce, secondary and continuing education opportunities, and academic and veterans support services.
Ascendium Education Group® is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization driven by the belief that learning after high school gives people the power to build better futures. Our national philanthropy focuses on increasing opportunities for learners from low-income backgrounds to achieve upward mobility through postsecondary education and workforce training. We partner with organizations whose objectives align with our core strategies to expand opportunity, support learner success, and connect and align systems. Our grantees include postsecondary education and workforce training providers, intermediaries, researchers, and media organizations from across the U.S. To learn more, visit ascendiumphilanthropy.org.
