Berea College Receives “Promise Neighborhood” Grant

BEREA, Ky. (WTVQ) – Knox County and Berea College Partners for Education received some good news moving into the holiday: The U.S. Department of Education will fund the college’s application for a Promise Neighborhood initiative in Knox County beginning Jan. 1, 2017.

In July, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. announced that the 2016 Promise Neighborhoods grant competition would award $30 million to five organizations to provide their communities with comprehensive services and school supports aimed at improving outcomes for students and their families. The successful grant application submitted by Partners for Education at Berea College will provide academic support services to 10,347 students in Knox County.

“We know that giving students the positive supports provided by Promise Neighborhoods helps to prepare them for success in school and their communities. The kind of interdisciplinary support that this program generates can transform our most distressed communities,” said Secretary King during the July announcement.

Knox Promise Neighborhood is 386 square miles in the heart of central Appalachia and is part of the Nation’s first rural Promise Zone. Berea College’s most intensive work through Promise Neighborhood will focus on Barbourville Independent, Corbin Independent, and Knox County School Districts, all within the Knox County footprint.

The Knox Promise Neighborhood plan creates a complete continuum of solutions to prepare children to attain an education and successfully transition to college and career. The continuum of solutions is aligned with an ambitious and comprehensive strategy for improving schools in the Neighborhood..

“Promise Neighborhood will make a lasting impact on our community,” said Kay Dixon, superintendent at Barbourville Independent Schools. “We are excited about the work of reaching families and students while enriching the future for all in Knox County. The focus of the grant from ‘cradle to career’ will provide opportunities otherwise not available to our schools and community.”