| Donnelly College was founded in 1949 to provide affordable, post-secondary education opportunities to residents of inner-city Kansas City, Kansas. Central to the college's mission is outreach, by providing "education and community services with personal concern for the needs and abilities of each student, especially those who might not otherwise be served." To that end, it has joined with five public and private organizations to plan "Bridges to Success," whose mission is to provide members of the community with resource and training opportunities that will help improve their lives and the lives of family members through education, employment, homeownership, and entrepreneurship. The partners include El Centro, Inc., founded in 1976 with a mission to improve the lives of Kansas City's Hispanic residents; the Kansas Department of Human Resources; Catholic Housing of Wyandotte County, a faith-based community development corporation; the Entrepreneurial Development Center, which provides training and support to develop successful entrepreneurs; and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City, founded by Hispanic business leaders in 1977 to develop a business network and promote economic growth and the development of its member businesses.
Bridges to Success will use funding from a Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC) grant to provide residents of its target area with GED preparation and life skills training; career development, planning, counseling, and job placement services; job readiness/pre-employment skills training; comprehensive housing services; and business development consultation. Bridges to Success will be implemented in two phases. The first involves rehabilitation of an existing Donnelly College facility for use by the project, with implementation of the program to occur during the second phase. The Wilson Group, Inc., a local family-owned firm, has been contracted to oversee the renovation portion of the project.
The community Donnelly College serves makes up part of a federally designated Bi-State Enterprise Community that suffers from concentrated poverty, rising crime, job loss, declining schools, middle-class flight, and a deteriorating tax base. Nearly half of the adult population in Wyandotte County (in which Kansas City, Kansas is situated) lacks a high school diploma or General Equivalency Degree (GED). According to the United Way of Wyandotte County, an estimated 63 percent of the jobs in the County are taken by commuters from other jurisdictions, resulting in an economic drain of $1.5 billion a year. Most of the residents in the target area are low-income, and according to the city's 5-year Consolidated Plan, slightly more than 23 percent of the households in Donnelly's service area fall below the poverty line.
Donnelly College is situated in an area that meets HUD's definition for racial/ethnic minority concentration for African Americans. Hispanics represent the second largest minority population in Kansas City, Kansas; Donnelly's target area is home 97 percent of the total Hispanic population of Wyandotte County and 7.1 percent of the total population of Kansas City, Kansas.
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