The Hancock Community Education Foundation was founded in 1999 by Ron DeLuca, Wellington Lester and George Elwood as a New York State not for profit corporation. The Foundation received it's 501 (c) (3) status from the IRS in February 2000. The Foundation currently provides 10 educational and social programs for the youth and parents of Greater Hancock.
   Hancock is one of the poorest towns in the poorest county in New York State. The New York State Department of Education's predictors of school failure impact the Hancock School District: Poverty, Single Parent Households, Parental Education.
  The Hancock Community Education Foundation cannot hope to accomplish our mission by simply offering scholarship aid to students already committed to college. We must break the cycle of defeat that has kept generations of rural Americans inadequately educated and as a result, in poverty. We must start at the beginning and provide a new paradigm of educational support that nurtures and sustains the student from birth to college graduation. What has been referred to as the ("replication of the home effect" as perceived in those communities where the parents of school children have college degrees and sufficient income to support the best school systems and the college careers of their children).
  The Community has responded generously to the support of the foundation's programs for the children of Hancock, as have numerous private foundations. The foundation has also been the recipient of a 21st Century government grant for our 7th & 8th grade after school program. The Foundation is also a member of Dollars For Scholars®, a program of Scholarship America®, a national network of over 1,210 grassroots community-based, volunteer-driven scholarship foundations in cities, towns and neighborhoods throughout the United States.
  Since the Foundations beginnings in the year 2000, it has invested over $1,000,000 in Hancock. $336,000 of it in scholarship grants and the rest in educational support programs for students and adults. The foundation employs 44 part time educators and tutors as well as a full time Executive Director. But we provide something more than jobs or money. We provide hope. With your support we will continue to help build a future for our children.