Bank of America names Benedict College center 2025 honoree

Bank of America has chosen Benedict College Best Lives Center as its 2025 Neighborhood Builder, which provides grant funding to nonprofits in communities across the country.  

Through the Neighborhood Builder program, the Best Lives Center will receive $50,000 of grant funding over two years for leadership training and connection to nonprofits in a peer network, according to a news release.  

“The BEST Lives Center provides valuable support for students of all backgrounds pursuing education, helping them build pathways to long-term success, as well as supporting the region’s workforce development needs,” Vaughn Reynolds, president of Bank of America Columbia, said in the release. “Through flexible funding and comprehensive leadership training, our Neighborhood Builders program helps organizations like the center promote economic opportunity for individuals and families in our communities.”   

Benedict College said the Best Lives Center helps military families, former foster youth, formerly incarcerated people and adult learners with barriers to educational access, financial assistance and support services.  

The Benedict College center is one of seven nonprofits in Columbia to have received the Bank of America grant funding, totaling more than $350,000 in capital.  

“With the generous support from Bank of America through the Neighborhood Builders grant, the Benedict College BEST Lives Center is well positioned to enhance its innovative Drone Program and empower community members with job training and new skills. We are particularly excited about the leadership training provided to our administrators, which will reinforce our development as community leaders,” Vanessa Harris, executive director for Best Lives Center, said in the release. “This partnership reflects our unwavering commitment to fostering future leaders and advancing technology education within our community.”