In addition to scaling best practices in emergency aid programs, the project will help community colleges design effective data collection and assessment methods to better understand student basic needs insecurity and shift policies accordingly. Participating colleges will also implement new outreach programs to ensure that qualifying students can access existing public and campus-based benefits, such as federal nutrition programs, transportation subsidies, and affordable child care benefits.
“Addressing student basic needs is an investment in college completion. That was true before the pandemic, and it’s even more clear now. As they look to the start of another fall term, community colleges are wisely doubling down on investments in emergency aid,” said Ashley Bliss Lima, associate director of community college success at JFF. “This work is about scaling high-impact approaches to emergency student aid that will help extend much-needed relief to community college students across the country.”
The project is funded through a grant awarded by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as part of a broader initiative focused on emergency aid and pandemic response supported by the foundation. First created in 2012, JFF’s Student Success Network includes more than 500 community colleges that enroll 68 percent of all U.S. community college students, including 58 percent of all Pell Grant recipients at U.S. community colleges.
Media Contacts:
For the Hope Center: Deirdre C. Hopkins, deirdrechopkins@gmail.com
For JFF: Ronalis Naveo, rnaveo@jff.org
About The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice: The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice is an action research center redefining what it means to be a student-ready college with a national movement centering on #RealCollege students’ basic needs. Our work is guided by five pillars: action research, institutional transformation, policy and advocacy, communications, and sustainability. The Hope Center recently released its sixth #RealCollege Survey of students at 202 colleges and universities during the pandemic.
About JFF: JFF is a national nonprofit working to drive transformation in the American workforce and education systems. For nearly 40 years, JFF has led the way in designing innovative and scalable solutions that create access to economic advancement for all. Join us as we build a future that works. www.jff.org