Florence, Colorado

Emergent Campus + Cañon City High School collaboration

Problem

Young people leave because they can't see a future worth staying for—no career pathways, no peer community, no affordable housing, no sense that their ambitions can be fulfilled locally.

Solution

Emergent Campus Florence is a tech-focused business campus that opened in late 2019 in the former Florence High School at 215 N. Maple Ave. Its predecessor, FEDC's TechSTART, joined the Cañon City and Florence high school intern programs in fall 2017; Cañon City High School won Colorado's first rural P-TECH grant in March 2018 and works with Pueblo Community College and Emergent Campus businesses on tech pathways. Cañon City High School requires every student to complete a 60-hour internship before graduation and pays each student $400 for completing one.

Patterns used: Youth Stay Pathways

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