Staff reflections on the success and lessons learned of three important partnership initiatives.
Three distinct models have emerged as successful in fostering ongoing collaboration and information sharing between Community-Based Organizations and CUNY Colleges. The Bronx Opportunity Network (BON), the College Access and Success (CAS) program, and Strive for Success (S4S) each took different approaches to partnership but were anchored by common elements, including strong CUNY allies, private funding, and a research institution to facilitate and document efforts. None of these three initiatives were developed in a vacuum. All three are informed by a combination of community-generated, CUNY-innovated, and imported models that preceded them. Below are reflections on each of these initiatives from leaders in the field.
1. A Localized Network: The Bronx Opportunity Network (BON)
Established in 2011 with support from Jobs First NYC, the BON leverages the collective influence of eight Bronx-serving organizations to address systemic barriers to college success. The BON meets regularly with five partnered CUNY Colleges to discuss student needs and develop strategies to address them. Their work has led to the development of “fast track” admissions processes, mid-term grade reports, and transfer support. Its shared governance and administrative support have made it the longest and most successful partnerships between CBOs and CUNY.
Power in Numbers
Because the BON was this larger coalition and collectively, we were working with so many young people, Community Colleges just had to pay attention. And at that time, the stop-out rates were so high. It was almost like a perfect storm where the BON was trying to do this work and CUNY was actually realizing that they weren’t doing what they needed to do on their side to retain students. They needed the help of the CBO’s and so we knocked and they opened the door.
– Allison Palmer, New Settlement
Formalizing the Work
I feel like CBO’s were running around on these campuses doing all this work and the schools had no idea. The BON sort of formalized that, at least for BCC and Hostos. And then it started to grow and there was more acknowledgment of the work that CBO’s were doing across the city on these campuses, unbeknownst to many college administrators.
– Allison Palmer, New Settlement
Thought Partners
We realized some of the challenges and adversities that we were having with our students, as far as supporting them and then also with the institutions, was something bigger than just our relationship. Now we had thought partners to approach the work, strategize on how we could collaborate to address the issues that our students were having and then also taking it to the institutions.
– Theory Thompson, Good Shepherd Services
Impact
The placement exam was pivotal in the work. Getting a retest, showing our impact on prepping the students as they transitioned in was very tangible because we could see a pre and a post-score and the classes that students were initially assigned to take, versus after the intervention. It’s very easy to measure our impact on that.
– Theory Thompson, Good Shepherd Services
When CUNY finally got rid of remedials as we knew them, the BON was an important force. Power and numbers. Some of the best CBO’s in the Bronx were part of this and really pushed that agenda along.
-Laurie Dean, Pinkerton Foundation
2. One-on-One: The College Access and Success (CAS) Program
Initiated by the Youth Development Insitute and Jobs for the Future, the College Access and Success (CAS) program partnered Cypress Hills LDC with New York City College of Technology (City Tech) to develop an intimate model that involved top-down engagement from campus leadership, information sharing, and dedicated spaces for the CBO on campus. Beginning in 2004 and lasting for nearly ten years, CAS was one of the earliest examples of a sustained partnership between one CBO and a partnered college.
Strong Allies
I think there are a couple of key ingredients to success. First and foremost, we had a very strong ally at City Tech, Provost Bonne August. It was successful because of her. Hands down. It did not hurt that there was funding involved on both sides, both the City tech side and the Cypress Hills side. I think we bring something to. the table too, but even the best CBO isn’t going to be successful on a CUNY campus if there’s not a CUNY ally.
So I think we were great, but we really needed an ace in the hole. We needed that kind of fairy godmother, and that was her. She brought people to the table, and I mean literally the table. So we had monthly meetings in her conference room, the CBO team, her, someone from enrollment, someone from the counseling center, someone from the Career Center…
Focused
I think partially it’s because it was concentrated right, like one-on-one: one CBO, one campus. It was a small cohort. It was very manageable and tangible and there was money. Not to harp on that common denominator, but I think that is important. And it was very focused
Mutual Benefit
There’s some self-serving side of it too, right? Because if our students are successful at City Tech, that’s good for City Tech also. At that time, it wasn’t that different from now. You know, the numbers at CUNY are terrible. You know their retention and graduation numbers are not great. So if she can move the needle on that. That’s a good thing.
-Emily Van Ingen, Cypress Hills LDC
3. CUNY-Based Initiatives: Strive for Success/ The Network for College Success
In response to a growing need for community organizations to have access to CUNY Campuses, the Strive for Success (S4S) program was developed through a collaboration between College Access: Research and Action, CUNY K16 Initiatives, and the Pinkerton Foundation. Strive helped to partner 25 CBOs with a campus liaison and a team of peer mentors at six CUNY Community Colleges who provided up-to-date enrollment data, campus engagement events, and space for CBO staff to work with students on campus. Although it ran for only five years (2014-2019), the S4S model remains the largest and most robust CUNY/CBO partnership to date. Remnants of its model, including campus liaisons (champions) and a CUNY/CBO data share, live on in the work of the CUNY Network for College Success.
A CBO-Informed Model
More and more CBO’s are getting into college access and ultimately success and saying “We’re not just letting our kids go to CUNY and not being watched”. They wanted spaces on campus.
-Laurie Dien, The Pinkerton Foundation
Part of the argument was, you (CUNY) don’t have the capacity to do all the counseling. We are doing that. We are really helping your persistence, but we need more help on campus. And one founder, Lori Dean from the Pinkerton Foundation. Listened to that and said I think that’s interesting, but I only would want to do that if there was a campus-based peer-to-peer component to that.
-Lori Chajet, College Access: Research and Action (CARA)
1. There’s nothing like peer advising. That was pretty much at the beginning of all this. And 2. they’re cheaper. They can be the eyes and ears and 3. I learned they know where all the best bathrooms are. I’ll never forget this. -Laurie Dien, The Pinkerton Foundation
Challenges
It wasn’t structured into the fabric of that College in any way that was required. So engagement rates weren’t where they were supposed to be.
-Lori Chajet, College Access: Research and Action (CARA)
At that time peer mentoring was really exploding across our CUNY campuses, we were seeing that work as duplicative, students were giving us feedback that they had multiple mentors and that it was confusing to them.
Rebecca Beeman, CUNY K16 Initiatives
It wasn’t in the DNA of CUNY. Pinkerton was paying for these positions. If we went away, the colleges weren’t going to pay for them.
-Laurie Dien, The Pinkerton Foundation
Campus Connection
What they thought would be really helpful (CBOs) was if there was an adult staff member on each one of those campuses whose explicit job it was to connect community-based organizations to the resources they needed
– Lori Chajet, College Access: Research and Action (CARA)
That was the start of the conversation with CUNY so that success counselors would be able to have a space on campus to meet with students to do the work effectively and just to get an understanding of what resources were available on the college campus. So that way, we were in the know.
– LW, College Success Professional
Partly the strength of those partnerships was about how developed that CBOs program was, but I think there was a really nice through line. It did shift the ability of the CBO to support the students that they were trying to support.
-Lori Chajet, College Access: Research and Action (CARA)
Keeping what worked: The Network for College Success
That’s where it really grew out of; the need for community-based organizations to have access to campus partners, access to student-level data, knowledge sharing across the whole system and information about what was happening at CUNY.
-Rebecca Beeman, CUNY K16 Initiatives
There was data sharing that they got between the CBO’s and CUNY. That was huge, just like DOE and CUNY. Huge, because then you know where your students are and the CBO’s meet with CUNY so that they get all the inside information.
-Laurie Dien, The Pinkerton Foundation
Getting to a place of at least being able to share some level of student data, like if your students are enrolled, how many credits they’re taking, is a big step forward.
“You’ve got all these initiatives working in a not-organized way, but because it’s all the same community. That’s the key here. If you want the hypothesis, what’s the hypothesis? Why does this all work together? Because it’s all the same organizations.”
– Laurie Dien, The Pinkerton Foundation
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