Grants & Initiatives
Boosting Readiness for College and Career
The Boosting Readiness for College and Career initiative was designed to build an enabling environment for students to explore options, set aspirations, build readiness, and develop a plan to achieve after high school completion.
About
In 2016, MELMAC engaged over 100 stakeholders across the state to learn how it could develop initiatives to better support the success of Maine youth through education. During this process, MELMAC clarified its vision and made important changes to its funding strategy, changes that it believes will elevate its collective impact. Boosting Readiness for Career and College was one of three primary initiatives that were developed following this work.
The Boosting Readiness for Career and College initiative funds grants that help middle, high school, and CTE students prepare for and successfully transition to college and careers, and realize their limitless possibilities.
The Boosting Readiness for Career and College initiative funds grants that help middle, high school, and CTE students prepare for and successfully transition to college and careers, and realize their limitless possibilities.
Grants supported by this initiative
CTE Pathways Initiative: Best Practices Grant
The Best Practices Grant supports Maine's Career and Technical Education Centers in the implementation of college-going and career pathway activities. These four-year grant awards require recipients to directly address each of six best practice areas - fostering a career and college culture, pathway mapping, building a strong academic base, teaching non-technical career skills, imparting financial literacy, and providing individual support. These best practice were designed to balance prescriptiveness with flexibility, allowing grant recipients to address each of the six categories, while having flexibility in the way each is implemented. Strong relationships with sending schools, deep partnerships with industry, and parental engagement are all essential overarching strategies of the grant.
CTE Pathways Initiative: Systems Innovations Grant
The CTE Pathways Initiative's Systems Innovations Grant was designed to complement the Best Practices Grant. Grants are awarded to CTEs who develop new, outside-the-box solutions to systemic challenges that change the way CTEs recruit, engage, and educate their students about career pathways. While applicants for the grant were asked to propose their own plan, they were also encouraged to address any or all of five areas - off-site delivery of CTE experiences, parental engagement, regional collaboration, data collection, and expanding partnerships.
JMG/MELMAC Partnership Grant
The MELMAC Foundation and Job's for Maine's Graduates have collaborated to partner with high schools to provide support to students on a school-wide basis to identify their aspirations for life after high school, and then connect those aspirations to a post-secondary plan. At each school a JMG/MELMAC Career & College Coach works with all the students to empower them to make informed decisions about their career and educational plans, and prepares students for a successful transition to college and post-secondary training/education experiences.