Document Tag: emergency aid

Emergency Aid Distribution in West Texas Community Colleges (2023)

related to food and housing instability, inadequate health care and rising attendance costs. In fact, the U.S.
Department of Education recently released the first-ever national estimates of food insecurity and homelessness
and found that college students are more likely to face these issues than the general population. These financerelated
challenges have a significant and negative impact on a student’s academic performance and are
associated with stopping-out and dropping-out of college – even when the financial challenge amounts to a
relatively small dollar amount. Emergency Aid (EA) programs are one approach that colleges use to assist students
with these unforeseen challenges.
The threats students have faced in meeting their basic needs while in college have increased significantly in the
last 15 years, with less than half of all public community colleges today meeting criteria for being affordable. The
COVID-19 pandemic compounded these affordability issues as the entire sector forced students out of housing,
shut down dining halls, and shifted their instructional model overnight.
In response, Believe in Students and the then-startup mobile app called Edquity – now Beam – partnered with three
colleges in West Texas to provide emergency aid funding over two school years, from fall of 2020 through spring
of 2022, to help keep students in school as well as in their homes with their families intact. In total, $835,750
was disseminated throughout this period to help 1,937 students address food, housing, transportation, and other
expenses.
One of the partner institutions involved, Odessa College, was able to provide persistence and graduation data for
the students who received emergency aid through this program. This data shows that over 90% of all aid recipients
persisted in college the following semester or earned their degree. This outcome is particularly noteworthy
considering the national persistence rate for public two-year institutions (students continuing their education at
the same or a different institution) was 61.5% in fall 2020, while the retention rate (students returning to the same
institution) was 52.4%.
This report describes the unique partnership between community colleges in West Texas, Believe in Students,
and Beam, sharing information about how the dollars were used by students and how the partners adapted as a
result of the project. The findings and recommendations shared here are scalable to other campuses in Texas, and
the student outcomes will serve the region’s workforce and help meet the state’s 60X30 attainment goals and
workforce needs.

Investing in Student Completion: Overcoming Financial Barriers to Retention Through Small-Dollar Grants and Emergency Aid Programs (2015)

In this report, researchers at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab use data from surveys and interviews conducted with emergency aid program administrators around the country in order to provide details on the current landscape of emergency aid. At least 100 programs are operating— some have support from larger organizations such as Scholarship America’s Dreamkeepers program, while others are sophisticated in-house solutions using predictive data or small local efforts of caring and committed staff. All emergency aid programs seek to help students overcome financial shocks, as sometimes a tank of gas or a grocery store gift card is the lifeline a student needs to remain enrolled.

Faculty-Run Emergency Aid for Students (ND)

Note: This documented is now outdated and provided for historical purposes only. Please see Believe in Students (believeinstudents.org) for more information on running a FAST Fund.

Basic Needs Insecurity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities A #RealCollegeHBCU Report (2022)

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established primarily in the post-Civil War era to meet the educational needs of Black Americans. They provide pathways to upward social mobility and have a long-standing commitment to promoting both academic success and students’ health and well-being. But persistent funding inequities at both the state and federal levels actively undermine those commitments and leave the sector particularly vulnerable during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This report, a collaboration between The Hope Center and the Center for the Study of HBCUs, uses data from the #RealCollege Survey to examine the overlapping challenges affecting students attending HBCUs during fall 2020. In total, nearly 5,000 students from 14 public and private four-year HBCUs responded to the survey.

When Care Isn’t Enough: Scaling Emergency Aid During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021)

When the pandemic devastated communities and college campuses, colleges and universities faced an emergency. For the first time in history, Congress responded by authorizing billions of dollars in emergency aid to quickly alleviate hardships.

This report shows how colleges and universities met the challenge of emergency aid during the pandemic, drawing on a year of surveys and focus groups, fielded and conducted by The Hope Center and DVP-Praxis, that reflect the views of institutional leaders and students from coast to coast. The results offer valuable insights that should shape the future of emergency aid and student support. While the onset of the pandemic was unprecedented, its ongoing health concerns and the looming consequences of climate change ensure that knowing how to deliver emergency aid at scale will be essential to the well-being of future students. With these lessons in mind, we can all be better prepared and ready to respond.