UTICA — Mohawk Valley Community College, the Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE), and the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement (MVILR) announced Thursday that they have received a multi-year funding award from the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc.

The funding would allow both non-profit partners to connect members of the regional community with more opportunities for volunteer work and continuing education. 

“All of us at the Community Foundation are pleased to see the great strides that MVCC has taken with its community-focused programs and services, such as CLE and, more recently, MVILR,” said Alicia Fernandez Dicks, Community Foundation president/CEO. “Our donors can take pride in the college’s extraordinary efforts to marry and complement its academic mission with leadership and quality of life efforts such as these.”

MVCC President Randall VanWagoner said he is proud to continue expanding the college’s partnerships and for the prospect this creates for the community.

“We are very grateful to the Community Foundation for this generous grant, which will allow us and our partners to continue expanding programming to our diverse audiences and our collective impact on the community at large,” VanWagoner said.

Through the grant, the CLE will be able to work toward connecting regional leaders with volunteer opportunities as they incorporate a volunteer and board matching program. The CLE has received previous funding from the Community Foundation, using it to expand programming to include options like the Neighborhoods Rising experience and the Board Leadership series.

“The CLE has worked with hundreds of individuals annually through its leadership development programs to ensure a pipeline of diverse and engaged civic leaders in the Mohawk Valley,” said Kristen Skobla, executive director of the CLE. “Board members and volunteers play a critical role in an organization’s ability to meet its mission, to grow, and to achieve sustainability. The CLE is excited to embark on its next community-building initiative with board and volunteer matchmaking to support regional non-profits, the backbone of our community. The CLE board and staff are grateful to the Community Foundation for their tremendous partnership and for making this next phase possible.”

MVILR, working to rebuild its membership in a post-COVID world, will use the grant money to diversify its membership, implement membership incentives, expand programming, and incorporate a few additional perks such as One-Day University, an online learning community with more than 600 archived lectures and live-streamed events with small-group discussion.

“Now starting its 27th year of providing a wide range of quality classes to its senior learning community, MVILR is excited about this new opportunity,” said Nancy Ketz, president of MVILR. “We look forward to continued growth with greater inclusion and community collaborations made possible through this grant.”