m B ui ld in g ea m B ui ld in g Rural Community College Initiative III . Building Teams for Institutional and Community Change PROJECT BRIEF

Focusing on community colleges in distressed rural areas of the United States, the Ford Foundation’s Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) aims to help targeted community colleges expand their capacity to increase access to postsecondary education and to foster regional economic development. RCCI is geared to specific geographic regions where communities face out-migration and stagnant or declining economies—the Southeast, Black Belt/Deep South, Southwest, Appalachia, and western Indian reservations. Central to the RCCI goals is the idea that a broad-based team is the best vehicle to lead efforts at the college and in the community, and that teams should include a diversity of positions, perspectives, interests, and racial or ethnic backgrounds. A national demonstration program began in 1995 with nine RCCI pilot colleges that received funding from the Foundation, along with technical assistance from MDC, Inc., a nonprofit organization specializing in workforce and economic development.