Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College Online Compliance Certification
Judgment of Compliance |
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NARRATIVE/JUSTIFICATION FOR JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE
Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College provides continuing education, outreach, and service programs through the Office of Community and Economic Development (CED) [1] and the Appalachian Program [2].
Community and Economic Development
CED supports the mission of the college by offering a wide range of community and continuing education programs, professional development, customized business and industry training, technical skills training, and assessment services. Specific program initiatives include:
Small Business Development Center [3]. The SBDC is a partnership between federal and state governments and SKCTC. The partnership allows the college’s Small Business Development Center to provide services to small business communities at little or not cost throughout seven counties in southeast Kentucky. The center provides new and existing businesses with one-on-one consulting, small business training programs, and small business research and reference assistance. Workshops and seminars for entrepreneurs and small businesses are conducted on regular basis, covering a variety of topics, including How to Start a Business, Business Plan Preparation, Women Entrepreneurs, QuickBooks, Financing, and Computer-Based Applications for Small Business. Many other programs are available, depending on the needs of the client.
Pine Mountain Development Corporation [4]. Working closely with the SBDC, the PMCDC is collaboration among SKCTC and six local banks to provide capital to start up or enhance businesses in the region. Certified by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions’ Fund, PMCDC has assisted more than 50 businesses with micro-loans up to $59,000, providing over $400,000 in total capital, creating or saving approximately 150 jobs. PMCDC partners with the SBDC to provide technical assistance to its borrowers. The organization further collaborates with the Appalachian Development Alliance, an intermediary organization of eight development organizations serving eastern Kentucky, to provide larger loans when needed.
Mine Training Institute [5]. Through MTI, the college provides training for the coal mining companies in Kentucky and West Virginia (who have operations in Kentucky) in such areas as mine safety, electricity, and programmable logic control. Many of the courses offered through MTI are offered on a for-credit basis and are run through a state-grant program, called KYWins that covers up to 75 percent of the cost of instruction. With the recent boom in the mining industry, the demand for specialized training has increased dramatically and is now available through other colleges in the region in addition to SKCTC.
Aquaculture Training Center [6]. Funded initially by grants from the Ford Foundation and Steele Reece Foundation, the Center now partners with Kentucky State University to provide technology transfer and training to regional farmers and entrepreneurs in the emerging field of aquaculture. Utilizing water from abandoned coal mines, the project—located in Lynch, Kentucky—is capable of producing up to 40,000 trout annually.
Adult Basic Education [7]. CED provides a wide range of adult basic education services on its Cumberland, Harlan and Middlesboro campuses, including ESL, Family Literacy, Workplace Essential Skills, life skills, GED preparation, WorkKeys preparation, and computer literacy, and outreach and workforce development services to underserved populations through grant-related initiatives.
Ready-to-Work Program [8]. This innovative program provides targeted services to more than 145 clients each semester. Working with the Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children, students who qualify for the Kentucky Assistance Transition Program (KTAP) are provided an array of support services to help them succeed academically and many are given work opportunities at the college or with outside agencies.
Leadership Development. Working closely with other community Institutions, the college co-sponsors leadership training programs through Leadership Harlan County United and Leadership Bell County. Designed to provide more community leaders, these leadership academies have graduated more than 200 individuals.
Southeast Scholars [9]. Funded with external grants, including support from the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Southeast Scholars serves more than 100 at-risk elementary school students. The program selects sixth grade students from through the college’s service area and provides mentors and educational programming throughout the school year as well as an intensive academic program in the summers. Upon graduation from high school, SKCTC guarantees that the student can attend the college with free tuition and books for two years.
Continuing Education [10]. While some of the activities listed in the above program fall under the auspices of Continuing Education, many other activities do not. Individuals attending continuing education / community service classes vary from professional persons acquiring new skills to stay current in their fields, to industrial workers whose employers pay for specially tailored courses in maintenance and repair, to homemakers who are learning floral design.
The Office of Continuing Education awards only non-credit education units (CEUs) or certificates of attendance. CEUs are awarded for continuing education programs in which the activity is planned in response to a needs assessment for a specific target population. Planning includes selection of faculty with content expertise, input from sponsoring groups, method of instruction and objectives, and evaluations.
In addition to individual student files, a program file is kept on each activity. This file contains a description of the activity, a teaching application for the person(s) who taught the activity, a list of participants, and a statement of CEUs awarded. The Coordinator of Continuing Education reports enrollment to the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
The college also awards Institutional CEUs in addition to individual CEUs, most often for educational enrichment programs, such as leisure, personal growth, financial planning, language, photography, dulcimer making, dance, basic skills and children’s programs.
All offerings are systematically evaluated [11]. Participants are asked to complete an evaluation form at the end of each program. Although evaluation forms may vary from program to program, all forms ask participants to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructor, content, and presentation, as well as evidence of increase in knowledge.
The Appalachian Program
The Appalachian Program [12] is an umbrella for activities at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College relating to regional cultural and sustainable development. The program, which has its offices in the Edsel T. Godbey Appalachian Center on the Cumberland Campus, includes work (1) in public programming in the arts, culture, and community development, (2) to systematically document, preserve and present regional experiences through the Appalachian Archives, and (3) through an academic program that partners with the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts that includes teaching and curriculum development. The following lists some of the major thrusts of this program:
The Appalachian Archive [13]. The Archive collects artifacts documenting the history and culture of the central Appalachian coalfields. Its coal mining photography collection is one of the largest in the nation. The Archive is dedicated to making its holdings accessible to everyone and in helping people in the mountains to document and preserve their own history and cultural expression.
PACT (Partnerships Affirming Community Transformations) [14]. In the spring of 2002, the Rockefeller Foundation, a New-York-based charitable organization, awarded SKCTC’s Appalachian Program $149,470. The grant was the result of collaboration between college staff, SKCTC students, community residents and local arts organizations. Over the course of three years, the project has successfully used art to organize Harlan County communities to address conditions in the country, particularly drug abuse and its effect on area families. Using photography, tile mosaic and community theater, the project has involved hundreds of residents. A community theater production, Higher Ground, played to sell-out crowds in the Godbey Appalachian Theater during the Fall of 2005. The play, using a cast of almost 100, focused on the devastating effect that drug abuse has had and is having on the area.
Local Festivals. SKCTC is the primary sponsor of the following regional festivals:
Held in the fall of each year, these festivals are places for authentic mountain singers, dancers, storytellers, and actors to perform and preserve the areas mountain heritage and a time to bring the famous and not-so-famous together to enjoy and swap—and thereby preserve—tales, songs, crafts, and customs.
Middlesboro Little Theater / Center Stage Players. SKCTC is the primary sponsor of the Middlesboro Little Theater and the Center Stage Players (Cumberland) which bring quality entertainment and opportunities for community people to participate in theatrical productions for a three-county area.
Literally thousands of individuals participate annually in cultural programming made possible by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. It is also noteworthy that many of the performances and events are tailored for the public schools in the area, almost none of which sponsor comprehensive arts programming.
Supporting Documents |
Links to Supporting Documents |
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You must be connected to the World Wide Web to access the following links. (Click on the link to access the document.) |
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1 |
SKCTC Community and Economic Development Department Website |
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2 |
SKCTC Appalachian Center Programs |
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Pine Mountain Development Corporation |
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Mine Training Institute |
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Aquaculture
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SKCTC Adult Basic Education |
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SKCTC Ready to Work Program |
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SKCTC Southeast Scholars program |
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SKCTC Office of Continuing Education |
http://www.secc.kctcs.edu/sacs/ |
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Evaluation of Programs |
http://www.secc.kctcs.edu/SACS/ |
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Appalachian Program |
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13 |
Appalachian Archive |
http://www.secc.kctcs.edu/ |
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Partnerships Affirming community Transformations (PACT) |
http://www.secc.kctcs.edu/ |
