History and Founding
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College and Career Connections (CCC) began as a pilot site for the Learning Communities Initiative (LCI). Created in 2005 by Scholarship America and USA Funds, LCI is focused on increasing the number of low-income students that successfully pursue post secondary education. Six communities, including the Ward 7 community of Washington DC, were selected as pilot sites. These ethnically diverse, under-served communities from across the nation are characterized by insufficient educational resources and low educational achievement rates. In October 2006, the LCI site for Washington DC was established and called The Benning Learning Communities Initiative for its focus on a particular neighborhood in Ward 7. As part of the initiative, a group of community partners agreed to create programming and a learning culture that would motivate youth to graduate from high school and pursue postsecondary education in significantly higher numbers. In the summer of 2007, the LCI site broadened its focus to include all of Ward 7, their work within schools became a central part of the program model, and “Benning” was dropped from their name. CCC shared non-profit status with The First Rock Baptist Church Foundation and then Scholarship America until September of 2008 when it incorporated with the District of Columbia and gained independent 501c3 status under the name College & Career Connections.
Scholarship America and USA Funds continue to provide valuable support and resources to CCC. These national partners also keep us engaged with our fellow LCI sites which include Sunnyside School District in Tucson, Arizona; Okolona, Mississippi; Frontline Ministries in Orlando, Florida; and George Washington Community School in Indianapolis, Indiana.