The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) has assembled a task force to understand how insecurity with basic needs is affecting college students and what actions position students for success.
Key Points:
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- The task force will look at how issues differ across regions and campuses, what interventions are helping, and identify policy change so that financial insecurity is not a barrier to students’ pursuit of educational goals, including completion of a degree or credential.
- MiLEAP partnered with the Michigan Community College Association (an MLC client) and Temple University’s The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs to create the task force.
- The Hope Center was hired through funding from the Joyce Foundation and will be the research and facilitation partner.
Over the course of a year, Task Force members are being asked to participate in four meetings where they will:
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- Develop, review, and recommend policies and actions in the areas of food insecurity, housing insecurities, health and wellness, and digital equity.
- Review research on basic needs and ensure recommendations meet state needs in urban and rural settings and across different types of populations and identify gaps and solutions in the higher education ecosystem that the state can learn from.
- Review approaches taken in other states to dramatically reduce barriers for college students through enhanced support for students in need and identify needed adaptions for Michigan.
- Contribute to a report for the state on recommendations for intervention and policy opportunities.
