Chautauqua County Education Coalition

The Chautauqua County Education Coalition (CCEC) is a dynamic public-private partnership made up of 125 stakeholders representing 70 organizations that is the catalyst for collaboration around four components within Chautauqua County’s educational system: Early Childhood, Middle School to High School Career Pathways, Current Employer needs and Community Collaboration.

CCEC Goals are as follows:

1. Education: Improve educational outcomes at key points along the learning system.

2. Economics: Enhance opportunity for Chautauqua County’s economy to grow through retention and attraction of employers and people.

3. Partnerships: Increase learning system effectiveness through stronger alignment, synergy, and resource sharing.

The CCEC Board of Directors is a group of diverse stakeholders from the public, private and social sectors.

Through a community process the CCEC identifies catalytic projects that will enable our community to meet outcomes such as:

• Meeting labor needs of employers
• Improve the tax base
• Reduce poverty
• Reduce the number of children in poverty (Reduce number of children receiving free-reduced lunch through increased household income)

The CCEC is building partnerships to assure that we are ‘community ready’ for opportunities that advance our learning system and lead to job retention and job growth. For the past five years the CCEC has been mentored under the tutelage of CivicLab, based in Columbus Indiana.

Accomplishments of the CCEC as of 03.29.2019

The System – Process

The base hits:
• Consistently bringing together multiple stakeholder groups (125 individuals representing 70 organizations) from across the county with a focus on aligning resources to enhance education and the local economy.
• Developed consensus around a mission, specific areas within the learning system to focus upon and desired outcomes of the learning system.

The home runs:

• Recipient of the 2019 Friend of Education Award from Chautauqua County School Boards Association
• Facilitation/management of the National Grid STEM grant that included $66,000 of investment in the form of micro-grants to support STEM programming in Chautauqua County
• Facilitation of Professional Development – Session 1. “The Stakeholder Engagement Process” /Chautauqua Leadership Network – Session 2. “Skills for the Next Generation” / Dunkirk City School District

K-READINESS

The home runs:
• Secured $238,000 in funding from the Cummins Foundation & The Ralph Wilson Foundation to support the growth of the Parents As Teachers program at area school districts.
• Facilitation/management of $238,000 in funding from the Cummins Foundation & The Ralph Wilson Foundation to support the growth of the Parents As Teachers program at area school districts.
• Assisted Parents as Teachers in developing a business plan to grow capacity and supported their efforts to become eligible for State Aid (BOCES CoSer).

PATHWAYS

Manufacturing

The home runs:
• Supported DIDI’s efforts in securing $250,000 from the Ralph Wilson Foundation STEM 2035 RFP that will support Out-of-school STEM programming at area school districts.
• Identified Catalytic Projects: Dream It Do It, P-TECH, Chautauqua Lake STEAM Academy, MTI at Jamestown Community College and PEMIT academy at Jamestown High School.
• Supported development of the Pathways in Technology Early College High School Program (P-TECH) program & facility
• North American & Global Recipient of the Cummins Business Engine Unit Recognition for Career Pathway Development
• Completion of MTI@JCC Addition
• Creation of manufacturing programming of Chautauqua Lake Central School
• Supported development of the Workforce Readiness Scholarship through Jamestown Community College

Health Care

The home runs:
• 1 “Home grown” physician returned to practice in Chautauqua Co.
• UPMC agreed to apply to ACGME to underwrite the establishment of the Primary Care Residency program.
• Expansion of the Health Care Career Advantage internship programs into the northern part of Chautauqua County