College wins $30 million grant to help students in 3 poor Ky. counties; program's only rural grantee

Berea College in Kentucky is the only rural applicant to win one of five implementation grants from the Promise Neighborhoods Program, designed to improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children and youth in America's most distressed communities.

Berea will get a first-year grant of $6 million, totaling up to $30 million across the five-year life of the grant, which will support implementation of cradle-to-career services to improve the educational achievement and healthy development of children in Kentucky's Clay, Jackson and Owsley counties. The college was one of three rural applicants to get a planning grant last year; the others were in the Mississippi Delta and the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

“We feel privileged to be selected as the only Promise Neighborhood grantee working in rural America,” outgoing Berea President Larry D. Shinn said in U.S. Department of Education news release. “We take the responsibility of service to communities beyond Berea very seriously and feel an even greater responsibility to serve well the Promise Neighborhood communities.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, “Promise Neighborhoods recognizes that children need to be surrounded by systems of support inside and outside of the classroom to help them be successful in school and beyond.” Plans for the project "include a range of services from improving a neighborhood’s health, safety, and stability to expanding access to learning technology and Internet connectivity, and boosting family engagement in student learning, the news release said. For teh national release, click here.