Within the region served by the Contra Costa County Adult Education Consortium (CCCAEC), approximately 10 percent of adults do not possess a high school diploma or its equivalent and about 7 percent have a limited English-speaking ability. Both of these factors present challenges for those individuals looking to build upon their education and improve their socioeconomic status. Also, consortium members have found that these individuals tend to face considerable barriers to changing their situations, and the consortium wanted to find a way to help remove some of the obstacles to create a smoother path to employability, which, in turn, would have a positive impact on the community as a whole.

The solution was Project ACCESS (Advancing Childcare Education and Student Success), a collaborative effort that involved creating a career pathway that allowed students to simultaneously learn English and progress toward an early child education credential while receiving wraparound services to support their success. The participants began the program at Mt. Diablo Adult Education, the adult school, and then bridged to Diablo Valley College, the local community college. The pathway culminated in a minimum of 12 early childhood education college credits and an associate teacher permit.