After piloting the program across three states over the past 18 months, Campus Compact has announced that it will sunset College Renaissance Corps, its workforce development-focused AmeriCorps program, effective December 2024.
College Renaissance Corps was launched in 2022 in an effort to leverage national service to empower community college students to become industry leaders while working to boost enrollment rates in high-demand industry programs at community colleges. As an innovative program, it aimed to push the boundaries of what is possible with AmeriCorps by recruiting community college student AmeriCorps members to engage in pre-apprenticeships through industry partnerships, while leveraging social media for student-driven community outreach.
Planning grants and initial funding for the program expanded rapidly and Campus Compact moved quickly to meet this interest and opportunity. Beginning any new program always comes with challenges and new learning—and scaling a program this innovative and imaginative added even more complexity. It became clear that the requirements and responsibility of running a program of this kind made it challenging to meet and balance the needs of students, campuses, industry partners, and our staff. These challenges made us take a close look at the long-term viability of CRCorps. In collaboration with our AmeriCorps state commission partners, we examined a variety of creative ways to continue program operations, but ultimately, we could not find a sustainable solution resulting in the difficult decision to sunset the College Renaissance Corps program.
Despite this result, we see and recognize the many bright spots created by College Renaissance Corps, its staff, its campus and industry partners, and its AmeriCorps members. Over a short time and despite challenges, the program increased student engagement through service, developed students as community leaders, strengthened and established new community-campus partnerships, and contributed to economic mobility through education and workforce development. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the significant efforts of the smart, caring, and innovative work of our College Renaissance Corps colleagues.
Campus Compact collectively remains committed to these concepts as building blocks for future work. We will continue to build and support new and innovative programs, partnerships, and initiatives that fulfill our mission. We will continue to uplift the value and importance of community colleges in our communities and build new tools and resources to support them in their work. We will continue to be proud partners of AmeriCorps and to advocate for its important role in developing community leaders and instilling the values of public service in Americans.
For more information or questions about CRCorps, please contact Matt Farley at [email protected]