The Office for Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) invites community colleges to submit proposals for the Educational Leaders Equity–Centered Transformation (ELECT) Spark Grants Initiative Program.

The ELECT Initiative will provide grants for a one-year period or less (calendar year 2019), awarding up to five community colleges $8,000 to spark or extend equity focused and culturally responsive curriculum efforts. We define educational equity as the process of identifying how disparities affect the educational opportunities of students based on marginalized social identities (i.e. race, gender, socioeconomic class, gender, sexuality, age, citizenship, religion, physical and mental ability, etc.) and subsequently developing strategic solutions to take systemic action to redress these inequities (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004) through ongoing and sustainable efforts (Gorski, 2016) that are equity centered.