**Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Program**

**FY 2023 Awardees**

The Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students (Basic Needs) Program provides grants to eligible 

institutions of higher education (IHEs) to support programs that address the basic needs of students and 

to report on practices that improve outcomes for students.  Funded for the first time in FY 2021, the 

Basic Needs Program supports IHEs that demonstrate a commitment to developing or enhancing 

programs that support the basic needs of students. For FY 2022, the Notice Inviting Applications was 

published in the Federal Register on August 2, 2022. The deadline to submit applications was 

October 3, 2022. We received 113 applications of which 110 were eligible for review. Applications were reviewed on panels that consisted of non-Federal reviewers. Due to budget constraints for the program, we were initially only able to fund the 14 highest ranked applications. Applicants have been awarded funding under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students (Basic Needs) Program (ALN 84.116N). As stated in the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2022 for the Basic Needs Program, the U.S. Department of Education may make additional awards in subsequent fiscal years from the list of unfunded applications from the FY 2022 competition. The maximum award amount allowed is $950,000 for the 3-year Performance period. Project Abstracts for 10 of the funded applicants are below. 

**Table of Contents**

El Camino College	2

Columbus State Community College	3

Virginia Commonwealth University	4

Board of Regents, NSHE obo University of Nevada	5

Ocean County College	6

Normandale Community College	7

Tarrant County College District	8

Riverside Community College District/Moreno Valley College	9

Western Technical College	10

Portland Community College	11

El Camino College (CA)

# Warriors Resource Program

To address the needs of basic needs insecure students, El Camino College has evaluated and identified a way to bridge the gaps in the area of supportive services that will increase retention and completion for traditionally underserved students. El Camino College Warriors Resource Project has developed a comprehensive program **to**close student achievement gaps by providing a case management approach to provide comprehensive, holistic support surrounding basic needs, and increase sense of belonging and holistic wellbeing. The program has been designed in relation to the institutions recent self-evaluation which focused on identifying strengths as well as gaps and weakness in services, infrastructure and the project design is developed to address these gaps.

Furthermore, the proposed project focuses on **strengthening Cross-Agency Coordination and Community Engagement and Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources through a comprehensive and holistic student support service.**With oversight and management from a qualified team including program director, program coordinator and success coaches.

**Warriors Resource Project focuses**on food, housing, and health security by using a case management cohort model and project partner support. The students will participate in a bridge program/boot camp to orientate to El Camino’s resources, as well as the surrounding communities’ resources. Students will be placed in a learning community, to ensure a supportive environment through the year. The project will leverage our project partners to secure housing, food and health support for students. The WRP program will also leverage campus partners and scaling up their programming with WRP students. Access to emergency stipends to supplement their basic needs will also be used, when needed. Program partners will present throughout the semester on topics including Renters Rights, Know Your Rights-Navigating Public Benefits. This component of the

activity is to increase students’ navigational capital around accessing and securing their basic needs. The program will also focus on specific activity interventions regarding students’ sense of belonging, including workshops for students to learn healthy ways of coping and addressing their physical-well-being.

Columbus State Community College (OH) COLUMBUS STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

*U.S. Department of Education: Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Program*

# Project Abstract

Columbus State Community College (CSCC) is in Franklin County in urban Columbus, Ohio. CSCC is the largest community college in Ohio and among the largest community colleges in the nation. Each year, CSCC provides access to quality and affordable education with options for over 300 degrees and certificates. CSCC is a high-volume college with a diverse student body and a dedicated staff of 2,500 employees.

The College is highly dedicated to non-academic student support. To continue to serve students’ basic needs, this proposal presents an expansion of three major areas: good insecurity, transportation, and access to technology. These areas have been determined as of high need to improve and increase student success at CSCC. The College is also committed to a student awareness initiative to increase knowledge about basic needs supports on campus. This application addresses Absolute Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, and the Competitive Preference Priority.

The ***overall goal***of this project is to assist students with basic needs so that they experience enough stability to complete their education. Providing stability to students sets off a chain reaction—if a student completes their education by earning a degree or certificate, they have a better chance of being hired and earning a family-sustaining wage. This project will ensure that students receive help meeting their basic needs to create overall stability and ultimately, prosperity. The following chart details the project’s primary deliverables and activities:

The broader impact of the proposed project is increasing the educational attainment of underserved populations in the region and providing more individuals with the opportunity to earn a family-sustainable wage. This will be done by expanding services in certain areas to directly impact students in need. CSCC is poised for this work and recognizes that it is essential to provide basic need services to students pursuing a college education.

Virginia Commonwealth University (VA)

**Virginia Commonwealth University’s Basic Needs Project Abstract**

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)’s Basic Needs Project will build upon the institution’s past and ongoing student success initiatives to facilitate access to services that would improve the security of basic needs for vulnerable students. The project will focus on supporting students who represent particularly vulnerable populations: students with dependents, students facing housing insecurity, and those who were wards of the state or aged out of the foster care system. These student populations have higher Pell-eligibility rates, lower average GPAs, lower retention rates, and lower graduation rates than their counterparts.

To improve their academic performance, retention, and outcomes, VCU seeks to provide vulnerable students with comprehensive, holistic, one-to-one case management support to identify their basic need insecurities, connect them to appropriate partner resources, and ensure they have ongoing access to assistance that addresses their housing, childcare, food, and other needs. Participating community partners will receive referrals and be a part of a comprehensive care team that will review individual cases and discuss opportunities and challenges. VCU’s project will also address students’ academic, social, and emotional needs through workshops, a speaker series, and support groups.

Anticipated outcomes of VCU’s Basic Needs Project for the target population includes narrowing gaps in persistence and graduation rates compared to their counterparts, improved skills for academic and life success, a strong sense of inclusion and belonging on campus, increased availability of basic needs support, and an overall decrease in level of basic needs insecurity among all students.

Board of Regents, NSHE obo University of Nevada, Las (NV)

**ABSTRACT**

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public, metropolitan university with an undergraduate enrollment exceeding 25,000 students. With more than 300 university-degree programs, UNLV serves as the primary provider of bachelors-, masters-, and doctoral-level courses for the more than two million residents of Clark County, Nevada. More than 8,200 UNLV undergraduates are disadvantaged (DA)—i.e., low-income and/or

first-generation-college—students with a need for academic support (NFAS) in order to persist in postsecondary education and complete a baccalaureate degree. On various indicators of academic performance (year-to-year persistence rates, cumulative GPA, graduation rates, and post baccalaureate enrollment rates), UNLV’s DA-NFAS students are far outstripped by their more advantaged classmates.

Annually, from 2023-2026, the UNLV Basic Needs Program will serve 890 participants annually (90 scholars in more intensive programs + 800 students served through the basic needs goods distribution) of the institution’s DA-NFAS undergraduates, with no less than 75% of project participants being low-income individuals. With the full support of the UNLV administration and of institutional units across the UNLV campus, the project will provide these participants with an array of student services, including:

· Academic tutoring;

· Counseling (i.e., academic; undergraduate financial-aid; career; and graduate/professional-school admissions and financial-aid);

· Frequent, ongoing academic-progress monitoring; and

· Financial-literacy instruction;

· Academic Success Supplies (Textbooks, school supplies);

· Housing & Basic Needs Insecurity Supplies; and

· Food Insecurity Supplies.

These services will assist participants with overcoming barriers that would otherwise impede their academic progress and lead to their premature departure from higher education.

Furthermore, as a result of receiving these services, the participants will earn cumulative GPAs that are high enough to qualify them for admission to upper-level undergraduate programs and to postbaccalaureate studies. Finally, at rates substantially higher than those of DA-NFAS students who receive no assistance from the project, participants will:

· Persist from year to year in their respective degree programs;

· Graduate from the institution in four, five, and six-year time frames; and

· Enroll in postbaccalaureate studies.

Finally, in response to the CPP, the project will employ an evidenced based approach to advance DA-NFAS students’ success.

Ocean County College (NJ)

Ocean County College

FIPSE Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students

ABSTRACT:

Ocean County College (OCC), a public, two-year community college in Toms River, New Jersey, serves the citizens of Ocean County, New Jersey. Accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools since 1969, OCC offers 24 associate degrees and more than 40 certificate programs on campus, online, and through 12 subsidiary locations.

OCC’s student population is comprised of 13,214 unduplicated students as of Fall 2021. Of those, 16% are Hispanic/Latino and are the fastest growing population at OCC; 65% are white; 6% are Black; 6% are of unknown race/ethnicity; 5% are other races; and 3% are two or more races. In FY2021, 79% of OCC students submitted a FAFSA, and 61% of OCC’s first-time, full- time students received some form of financial aid in FY2020-2021, with 87% of students who submitted FAFSA reporting no expected family contributions to help them remain in school.

The OCC FIPSE Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Project requests a total of

$316,639 in year one of the project and a total $949,277 throughout the performance period to provide evidence-based interventions for students that mitigate basic needs insecurity for underrepresented populations.

Over the three-year grant period, OCC proposes to serve 500 participants. Required services include 1) identification and recruitment of eligible students; 2) development of an Individualized Service Plan (ISP) for each eligible participant to identify at-risk factors that place them in danger of dropping out; application of direct interventions for basic needs, including 3) food assistance; 4) housing assistance; 5) transportation assistance; 6) assistance for health needs (physical, mental, behavioral, and/or trauma-based); 7) dependent care assistance; and 8) access to technology (including accommodations for students with disabilities) or required materials for courses in the participant’s degree plan. In addition to the required services, the following permissible services will also be provided: 1) referrals to additional basic needs intervention service providers; 2) referrals to community based organizations that provide additional evidence-based services that support postsecondary success ; 3) referrals to tutoring and other academic support services; 4) advising and counseling for postsecondary course selection; 5) FAFSA preparation and submission assistance; 6) counseling and information on all available avenues of financial aid as well as assistance completing required applications; and 7) the development of student support networks through events hosted in partnership with OCC student life and student organizations.

Project outcomes are specific and measurable, using a rationale based upon peer reviewed

evidence and literature, such as, “Factors influencing the academic success of Latinx studentsmatriculating at 2-year and transferring to 4-year US institutions—implications for STEMmajors: a systematic review of the literature”i. Proposed participant outcomes include increases to the number and percent of postsecondary students from underrepresented populations who persist from academic year to academic year (70%), increased percentage of participants who earn a certificate or associate degree (60%), and 65% of participants who receive services from this grant will experience decreased levels of basic needs insecurity.

i Winterer, E.R., Froyd, J.E., Borrego, M. et al. Factors influencing the academic success of Latinx students matriculating at 2-year and transferring to 4-year US institutions—implications for STEM majors: a systematic review of the literature. IJ STEM Ed 7, 34. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00215-6.

Normandale Community College (MN)

# Program Abstract

**Project Title:**Developing a Student Resource Center and a Student Healthcare Center in order to become a more student-ready college

**Population to Be Served:**Normandale students, particularly BIPOC, first generation, low- income, LGBTQIA+, and students with disabilities. Normandale’s student body is diverse, with 52% BIPOC students, 41% low-income students, and 27% first generation students.

**Project Need:**Normandale is focused on becoming a student-ready college that is committed to a holistic approach to student needs, both academic and non-academic. Services to address basic needs insecurity are an important part of this approach. The basic needs insecurity of Normandale students has been exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the #RealCollege survey, 53% of students surveyed had experienced at least one form of basic needs insecurity.

The college’s current infrastructure is not able to address all of students’ basic needs such as housing, transportation, healthcare, and childcare.

Disparities among different student groups are also a concern. Minnesota, and the Twin Cities in particular, have some of the worst racial disparities in the country. At Normandale, underserved groups of students experience more basic needs insecurity. Normandale has identified specific weaknesses and opportunities associated with these needs that will be addressed through this proposed project via full-time staffing of the Student Resource Center, expanding marketing and outreach to students, and expanding services and community partnerships.

**Project Activities:**Normandale will use grant funding to build out its Student Resource Center from a volunteer-led office into a fully staffed one-stop program to address students’ basic needs. This is modeled on Single Stop USA’s Community College Initiative, which the What Works Clearinghouse has identified as having potentially positive effects on student progression in college and academic achievement. Finally, the project will pilot a Student Healthcare Center to meet emerging student needs for access to free or low-cost healthcare services.

In addition, much of this project is focused on communicating the availability of basic needs supports to Normandale’s diverse student body. Central to the design of the project is ensuring that underserved and underrepresented students are aware of services available, that the process for accessing services is simple and streamlined, and that students feel welcome. To better understand student perspectives and concerns, Normandale will support a student-led belonging project focused on de-stigmatizing help-seeking behaviors and use of the college’s basic needs resources. Student leadership groups at Normandale are as diverse as the student body, which will help to ensure that the de-stigmatization project will target and resonate with underrepresented students and ensure student voices are included in feedback and evaluation of outcomes and long-term impact of the services provides by the Student Resource Center.

**Expected Outcomes:**Short-term outcomes include increased awareness of project services, increased understanding of student need, and increased student belonging. Medium-term outcomes include increased student engagement, increased college-level credit accumulation, and increase in semester-to-semester retention. Long-term project outcomes include increases in year-over-year persistence rates, three-year completion rates, and three-year transfer rates.

*Normandale Community College	Page 1*

Tarrant County College District(TX)

Tarrant County College District FIPSE Basic Needs Abstract

# Abstract

Tarrant County College District (TCCD) submits this Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Program application for the FY 2022 competition, requesting $949,997 over three years. As one of the nation’s largest comprehensive two-year colleges located in north-central Texas, TCCD is comprised of six campuses serving Tarrant County and the surrounding cities within the county. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) is the accrediting body for TCCD. TCCD’s mission is to provide “affordable and open access to quality teaching and learning” through postsecondary educational opportunities.

Financial need amongst TCCD students is evident as **more than half (57%)**of all incoming full-time TCCD students received some form of financial aid during the 2020-21 academic year (IPEDS, 2020-21). Additionally, **TCCD has experienced an increase in the percent of first-generation students who are Pell eligible from 40.4% in the Fall 2020 semester to 45% in the Fall 2022 semester**(TCCD Institutional Research, 2022). The number of Pell eligible students of color has **increased from 42.3% in the Fall 2020 semester to 45.7%**in the Fall 2022 semester. Pell eligibility was over 15 percentage points higher for first- generation students compared to students who were not first-generation as well as for students of color. Approximately 35 to 40% of qualifying students (dual credit, international, and non- resident citizens were excluded) districtwide were Pell eligible during the Fall 2022 semester.

The TCCD Basic Need Project proposes to create a **Student Empowerment Center(SEC)**as a centralized location to integrate with or build on efforts from other TCCD programs to improve relevant outcomes to ensure students’ basic needs are met. The proposed project will create **a case management support plan to integrate with or build on similar or related efforts to improve relevant outcomes**(inclusive of both academic and non-academic goals), to address the non-academic demands/barriers students encounter outside of the classroom. The project will provide include explaining the roles and importance of the many student support services available to students, especially related to access to campus, state, and federal benefits access to childcare, housing, transportation, food, and mental and emotional support. To assist in screening for federal and local public benefits programs, track and follow up on referrals, the proposed project will integrate ***Single Stop*technology**which includes access to a benefits screener, community resources database, case management suite, and data and reporting platform.

TCCD will address Absolute Priority 1, 2, and the Competitive Preference Priority.

Riverside Community College District/Moreno Valley College (CA)

**Abstract**

In March 2019, the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, in collaboration with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the Institute for College Access and Success, released a report titled the California Community Colleges #RealCollege Survey. The survey examined food insecurity, housing insecurity, and homelessness among California community college students. RCCD students were found to have higher rates of food insecurity, housing insecurity, and homelessness than other California community colleges, with more than 65% of students experiencing at least one of these basic needs insecurities over the past year.

Recognizing the challenges that all students are facing, but most specifically underserved students, RCCD, with leadership from Moreno Valley College (MVC) and including the district’s two other colleges, Norco College and Riverside City College, will utilize its Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students grant to strengthen the individual and collective capacity of the colleges to address the basic needs of underserved community college students. This project will build upon and leverage existing college, district, and community efforts to expand cross- district coordination and cross agency collaboration to improve student success outcomes.

This will be accomplished through a two-pronged approach that will increase the number of underserved students accessing basic needs supports. The first activity will expand and enhance the number of basic needs services available to students both on- and off-campus by:

1) Coordinating efforts with programs and agencies both on and off campus through the development of a Basic Needs Taskforce that includes both internal and external stakeholders, to address ALL seven of the basic needs identified by the U.S. Department of Education, including food assistance, housing, transportation, health, including access to mental health support, childcare, dependent care, and technology;

2) Conduct a community needs and asset mapping to identify existing programs and initiatives that can be leveraged and new programs and initiatives to develop and implement, utilizing Achieving the Dream’s External Partnership Needs Assessment to identify gaps; and

3) Establish cross-agency and community-based partnerships with local nonprofit organizations, businesses, philanthropic organizations, and others to meet family well-being needs, strengthening existing memoranda of understanding to ensure that partnership agreements are student centered and accessible and establishing new memoranda of understanding.

The second activity will utilize automation technology to assist students in identifying and accessing programs and services to meet their needs. Specifically, this project will expand the functionality of the colleges’ emerging Holistic Student Support Program, focusing on three specific areas, including an online Resource and Referral System linked to an enhanced Holistic Student Support Survey and supported single online application that allows students to apply for multiple programs and services through one application.

Through these activities, this project addresses both the Absolute and Competitive Preference Priorities, utilizing a systemic approach to support the social, emotional, and academic needs of underserved students. This project incorporates evidence-based practices rooted in research conducted by Achieving the Dream and the Community College Research Center to strengthen student belonging, inclusion, and connectedness, reduce student basic needs insecurity, and improve student success outcomes, including persistence and completion.

Western Technical College (WI)

US Dept of Education OPE CFDA # 84.116N

*Project Abstract*

Western NES

*Western Technical College*

Western Technical College’s (Western) project, ***Western NES****(Navigating Economic Systems)*will build on and expand existing services to streamline the functionality of and access to available basic needs services for students.

**Goals:**The goals of *Western NES*are to impact the academic success of students served by meeting the basic needs of students. The project will accomplish this by ensuring 100% of students served identify as underserved populations; 70% of participants served in year one will be retained to Year 2 or Graduate or Transfer to another institution; 80% of participants will remain in Good Academic Standing (C or better course completion); 25% of students served in Year 1 will Graduate by end of Year 3; 10% of students served starting in Year 2 will Graduate by end of Year 3; and the level of basic needs insecurity among all students will decrease from 21.4% to 18% by the end of the grant period.

**Primary Activities:***Western NES*will accomplish its goals through three main activities:

· Provide direct resources to meet basic needs of students while optimizing the support services Western already provides.

· Increase systems navigation resources for students by collaborating with the Great Rivers United Way HUB agency to hire a Community Health Worker to help students navigate multiple health and community resource systems to obtain the services they need.

· Create an educational marketing plan to make community organizations with an established client base aware of Western as a feasible and attainable option for people who would benefit from education but maybe do not see themselves as college students.

**Contributions for research, policy, and practice:**Western’s contributions to policy and practice will focus primarily on how the meeting of students’ basic needs impact academic success. If the predicted goals are met, this project will provide the data necessary to seek and obtain long-term funding to maintain and/or expand the student-serving activities of the grant.

**Target Area to be Served:***Western NES*will serve marginalized student populations including but not limited to low-income, first-generation, Students of Color, single parents, students aging out of the foster care system, and justice-involved students enrolled at Western Technical

College, located in La Crosse, WI. Western’s district stretches along the Mississippi River and reaches as far north as the middle of Buffalo and Trempealeau counties, and as far south as Vernon County. The program will annually serve with a minimum of 100 students per year.

**Absolute and Competitive Preference Priorities Addressed:**As an accredited two-year technical college which meets the federal definition of a community college (Absolute Priority 2), *Western NES*will address Absolute Priority 1 by improving outcomes for underserved students to address access to **Health**resources by establishing community-based partnerships with the Great Rivers United Way HUB. *Western NES*will address both Competitive Preference Priorities through evidence-based strategies: (1) Fostering a sense of belonging and inclusion for underserved students. (2) Implementing evidence-based practices for advancing student success for underserved students.

Portland Community College (OR)

Portland Community College (PCC) is the largest institution of higher education in Oregon, annually enrolling more than 50,000 students (credit and non-credit). As one of the most affordable and accessible colleges in Portland, PCC is the primary route to a college education for the many low-income Oregon residents, including 9,348 who were eligible for Pell grants— more than any other community college in Oregon.

Addressing Basic Needs (ABN) will support PCC’s existing efforts to address basic needs insecurity by developing a systemic, comprehensive, college-wide approach to identifying students with basic needs insecurity and connecting them with resources, while at the same time building capacity to better address housing and mental health needs of PCC students. ABN will address absolute priorities 1 & 2 with the following activities:

1. Develop and implement trauma-informed, culturally responsive and poverty-informedcare training on basic needs insecurity for PCC faculty and staff to promote equity in student access to basic needs resources (*Absolute Priority 2 - Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities*)

2. Streamline identification of students with basic needs insecurity and access to benefits by hiring a full-time Basic Needs Coordinator, who will also coordinate PCC’s response to the housing crisis (*Absolute Priority 1 - strengthening cross-agency coordination in housing*)

3. Offer mental health evaluation services by hiring an Intake and Care Coordination Specialist who can diagnose students with complex mental health disorders, and help them access support and care in the community that PCC is unable to provide (*Absolute Priority 1 - strengthening cross-agency coordination in mental health*)

Outcomes of ABN include:

1. Outcome 1: PCC will serve a minimum of 50% of underserved students (approximately 5,865 students based on 2021 data) with direct services (i.e. intake, support such as mental health evaluations and referrals to existing services) provided by ABN. [GPRA Measure 1]

2. Outcome 2: The annual persistence rate of underserved students will be 8% higher for students who receive direct student service supported by the grant when measured against a comparison group who did not receive services. [GPRA Measure 2]

3. Outcome 3: The annual rate of degree or certificate completion will be 5% higher for students who receive direct student service supported by the grant when measured against a comparison group who did not receive services. [GPRA Measure 3]

4. Outcome 4: The basic needs insecurity among all students will decrease by 5%. [GPRA Measure 4]

ABN will also address the Competitive Preference Priority to meet students’ social, emotional, and academic needs.

*Addressing Basic Needs (ABN) at Portland Community College - PROJECT ABSTRACT*