​Hey all, this is Matt, coming at you from a different local college access network across the state! I’m a bit more than halfway through my year here at the Wayne County College Access Network, and boy has a whole lot has happened in that time. Over these 8 months, I’ve gotten to help out with a host of programs.  Because our anchor organization, the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance (SEMCA), which is where our office is located, is a Michigan Works Agency, our college access network has uniquely close relationships with several other awesome youth programs that SEMCA manages.  

Our network has been in transition over the past few months, and will continue to be in transition through the early summer. We recently brought on a new Youth Programs Manager here at SEMCA who will manage the network along with several other initiatives, and our staff will likely expand further this summer. These are exciting changes for the network—we cover more territory than most college access networks, so we are faced with endless opportunities to expand our programs and initiatives, and expanding our staffing capacity will help with that enormously!

I’ve done a lot of work in building network sustainability in my time here, writing grants, designing and implementing outreach initiatives and helping build a membership model. More recently, I’ve been doing more program planning. My VISTA Year Initiative is a collaboration with the Taylor Community Library—with the help of library staff, I’m planning a four-part workshop series called Next Step aimed at equipping folks with the basic computer-related skills required to secure a job, beginning with building a resume, and going through the online job search. Technology is in many ways an agent of class stratification; access to computers and computer literacy are requisite for countless components of our lives, and those who can’t afford their own computers are thus at a severe disadvantage. By creating a model for this program that can be employed many times throughout the year, we aim to strengthen the library’s capacity as a source of empowerment for marginalized people.

Of WCCAN’s collaborative efforts with SEMCA’s other youth programs, the endeavor I’m most heavily involved in is Manufacturing Day. This is a county-wide event put on by SEMCA and the county executive’s office in collaboration with a number of higher education and business partners that takes place in October, in which students visit manufacturers around the county and learn about the wide array of career opportunities they offer, and then visit local colleges to learn about the educational pathways to get to that point. WCCAN also collaborates with Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates, another of SEMCA’s youth programs, and I’m currently orchestrating several community service days in May and June.
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I’ve also had the opportunity to learn a tremendous amount about the functioning of a non-profit institution, particularly appreciating the knowledge I’ve accumulated and skills I’ve developed relating to the more nitty gritty, less glamorous aspects of non-profit management, from budgeting to cultivating relationships with donors. Along with all that, I’ve gotten an inside look at the world of workforce development, a world that seems to operate entirely unnoticed by folks who’ve been afforded the privilege to not require services that service centers offer, from GED classes to job search coaching.
The past few months have been busy, and I anticipate closing out the year in the same way. I’m excited to continue learning here!

​Hey folks! I’m Matt Sehrsweeney, working for the Wayne County College Access Network (WCCAN) in Taylor, MI just a bit downriver from Detroit. As with everyone else, I’ve stayed busy over the past few months. WCCAN works with all public and charter high schools in Wayne County, meaning that the structure of my relationships with the community is slightly different than that of most other VISTAs. With nearly 50 high schools to serve, most of our work is not direct, on the ground planning, training, and organizing, but rather higher level capacity building, aligning the efforts of a wide array of agents in the world of college access, from leaders in K-12 education to local and national non-profits. My two supervisors and I comprise the only employees of the organization, but our initiatives are guided by a robust leadership team made up of over 30 local college access champions, from superintendents to college presidents to local business owners.

My work week to week is variable, shaped by the immediate needs of the organization and my strengths on given projects (my awesome supervisors allow me significant flexibility in my primary focuses). I’ve worked on newsletters, planning our county-wide events like Manufacturing Day and our regional college fair, managing social media, and maintaining close communication with our county’s MCAN college advisers to facilitate their access to all the college access and success resources and information that our region has to offer. One broad theme in my contribution to forwarding WCCAN’s mission has been organizational sustainability. Early on, I found a strength in grant writing, and have since had ample opportunity to hone my skills and broaden my understanding of the grant process, thus far contributing  to four different grants that have cumulatively brought in over $300,000 to the college access network and related workforce development programs. Grants don’t last forever, though, and I have also been working with our sustainability team to design and implement strategies to reach out to our community stakeholders, including K-12 districts, colleges, and businesses, to invite them on board as financially contributing partners.
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My work thus far with WCCAN has opened my eyes to the complex nature of the structural barriers to securing post-secondary credentials, and the impressive, coordinated work to combat these injustices led by local champions of college access. I’m excited for what’s in store for the rest of the year!