Central Carolina Community College
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

Central Carolina’s newly adopted strategic plan, “Learning First,” emphasizes community and economic development through collaboration with community stakeholders. The Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, and selected Objectives all emphasize the importance of this collaboration. The college’s mission is truly fulfilled only within this context. The Stewardship value in our strategic plan states that “We honor the trust placed in us by the community, and are accountable for the efficient and effective use of the resources entrusted to us.” The Community value states that “We commit to active and integral partnerships within the communities we serve, and are dedicated to maintaining positive relationships among our own community of faculty, staff, and students.” And the Communication value states that “We commit to effective, open and proactive communication among faculty, staff, students, and the external community of which we are an integral part.”

In the strategic planning process we engaged all external stakeholders in the same manner and did not make a special outreach to underrepresented groups. We have a number of services we offer at the college to help underrepresented groups and of course a non-discrimination policy in admissions and for employment. We do reach out to serve them but have not done so specifically in our formal planning process.

 County commissioners, three counties  City government officials and staff, multiple cities/towns in our service area  State senators and representatives  Community non-profit agencies  Chambers of commerce, three counties  Economic development corporations, three counties  Local employers  Business/industry representatives  Law enforcement agencies  University partner representatives  Students living off-campus

As an example of this collaboration, the development of the strategic plan itself included extensive input during the Environmental Scan/Needs Analysis phase from community stakeholders, including government officials, community agencies, industry partners/employers, parents, alumni, trustees, university representatives, Foundation Board members, chambers of commerce, economic development corporations, and community members at large. Additional feedback on the draft plan was again solicited from select community members, including trustees, Foundation board members, and representatives of local industry/employers. This process resulted in a very proactive, forward thinking plan aimed at maximizing the college’s effectiveness in serving our community. Central Carolina’s recent success in obtaining bond funding for capital improvements serves as another successful example of this collaboration. Throughout the process of identifying needs, planning capital projects, and organizing the bond information, senior college administrators met frequently with local and state government officials from all three counties in our service areas. The result was a plan that all official government entities were proud to support, and nearly 70% of local taxpayers voted to fund.