Meeting the (basic) Needs: A strategic initiative to better support Chicanx/Latinx Students at an emerging HSI
This project is a collaborative and proactive approach by Chicanx Studies Faculty/Staff, Aggie Compass, and Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, to support the retention and success of Chicanx/Latinx students by providing greater awareness and direct referrals to basic needs resources.
Introduction:
At the core of having a healthy UC Davis campus community is ensuring that the basic needs of all our community members are met. Unfortunately, it is well-documented that our students have extremely high levels of food insecurity (44%, Food Security Task Force Report, 2018) and housing insecurity (18%, Housing Security Task Force Report, 2018). For students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, these experiences are likely a commonplace. Additionally, with the impacts of COVID-19, we can imagine even more students and their families may be struggling due to loss of jobs or even family members who helped provide for them. While resources, such as Aggie Compass, have recently been established to help address the basic needs of our students, there is a lot more work that needs to be done to help connect students to resources and de-stigmatize resource utilization. The purpose of this project is to implement a collaborative and proactive approach by Chicanx Studies Faculty/Staff, Aggie Compass, and Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, to meet the needs of Chicanx/Latinx students and help provide greater awareness and direct referrals to resources.
Outcomes:
The goal of this project is to build better partnerships between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to help proactively connect students to resources that can support their basic needs. This will be done by utilizing the Chicana/o Studies Department as the first academic unit to partner with Aggie Compass to ensure all students in our courses are actively questioned about their basic needs and made informed about resources within the classroom setting. This will be done by faculty conducting needs assessment surveys in the beginning of the quarter in all Chicana/o Studies courses (with subsequent resource referrals occurring as needed), active resource promotion for Aggie Compass happening in all of our courses, and evaluations at the end-of-term to determine the effectiveness of the campaign. Additionally, Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA), an art-based program affiliated with Chicana/o Studies, will collaborate to provide culturally relevant artwork to help destigmatize and promote resource utilization.
Opportunities for Involvement:
If you are interested in applying for the student assistant position to support with this project, please email Alyssa West at anwest@ucdavis.edu.
Recent Milestones:
The project team is currently in the process of designing the art campaign to create culturally relevant resource promotion. We are also in the process of recruiting a student assistant to support with this project. The student assistant will support with pre & post survey distribution, data analysis, and evaluation. They will also help serve as a liaison to Aggie Compass. If you are interested in applying for the student assistant position to support with this project, please email Alyssa West at anwest@ucdavis.edu.
Project Lead:
Alyssa West
Program Coordinator
Chicana/o Studies
anwest@ucdavis.edu