Three projects have been awarded a total of $521,974 as part of the 2023 grant cycle 

SACRAMENTO, CA—July 19, 2023—The Foundation for California Community Colleges’ (FoundationCCC) Nursing Education Investment Grants Program recently announced its awardees for 2023. In total, $521,974 was awarded to campus projects focused on nursing education and training that address academic readiness, holistic admission process, and development of a culturally responsive curriculum. 

Seventeen applications were received this fiscal year from individual community colleges, community college districts, and representatives from a community college office of continuing education and the nonprofit sector. This year’s awardees are as follows:

• Hartnell Community College District – “Closing the Gaps on the Central Coast: A Transformative Academic and Work-Based Learning Pathway to Reduce Racial Barriers and Increase Equitable Access to Healthcare Careers.” In 2023, a coalition of Central Coast system experts explored workforce gaps and strategies to connect Hispanic/Latino youth to healthcare pathways. With this grant, Hartnell College will reinstate the Salinas Valley Health Professions Pathway (SVHPP), a scalable academic and work-based learning pathway model, and will plan and implement evidence-based strategies to address gaps in equity, academic readiness, and career access for students of color.

• Chabot-Las Positas Community College District: Chabot College – “Building Patient Trust through Diversifying the Chabot Nursing Pipeline and Implementing Holistic Admissions Review.” The Chabot College Nursing Program aims to diversify nursing education pipelines by increasing the number of underrepresented (African American/Black and Latinx) students in the Registered Nursing program. The project will revise the program admissions criteria to be more holistic, offer discipline-specific DEIA professional development opportunities, and provide pre-nursing coursework and support to increase enrollment and retention.

• Allan Hancock Joint Community College District – “Allan Hancock College Culturally Responsive and Experiential Learning Curriculum in Nursing.” This project will develop a culturally responsive curriculum to enable deeper connections to content, teachers, learners, and success supports, and humanize realistic implementation of nursing strategies. The project includes professional development of nursing faculty on matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion, assessment of curricula and teaching pedagogies, learning experiences, and the implementation of strategies to enhance learning and better prepare the nursing students for professional practice.

Project proposals were evaluated by the program guidelines provided to all applicants, and the final awardees were chosen for their alignment with two priorities of the Nursing Education Investment Grants Program. Specifically, projects needed to:

1. Address systemic racism in nursing education programs, including efforts to diversify education pipelines, reduce harmful bias in learning environments, improve classroom or clinical placement climate for students of color, or enhance curriculum by integrating a focus on eliminating racial discrimination in health care.
2. Provide academic, clinical, and other work-based learning opportunities that ensure nurses are well-prepared to assume evolving and expanded roles in changing practice environments.

FoundationCCC awards Nursing Education Investment Grants to support projects that facilitate, coordinate with, or complement efforts to educate and train nurses through the California Community Colleges. Grant funding is provided by the Nursing Education Investment Fund established in 2005 through an agreement between FoundationCCC, WellPoint, Inc., and the Insurance Commissioner for the State of California, and is designed to benefit nursing education within the California Community College system. FoundationCCC maintains the fund and administers grantmaking.

To learn more about the Nursing Education Investment Grants Program and about past awarded projects and grantees, please go here.

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The Foundation for California Community Colleges works to benefit students, colleges, and communities by accelerating paths to economic and social mobility, strengthening communities, and reducing barriers to opportunities for all Californians. FoundationCCC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1998. It serves as the official statewide nonprofit organization supporting the California Community Colleges, the largest system of higher education in the nation. For more information, visit www.foundationccc.org.