14 Outside Resources for Students

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
-Margaret J. Wheatley

Many students have to budget for tuition and fees, but often there are other associated costs that also affect a student’s ability to attend college for example living expenses, food expense, childcare expenses, between others. In 2019, study done by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice release a study conducted on 171 2 year colleges and 56 four-year universities found that “39% of respondents were food insecure in their prior 30 days, 46% of respondents were hoursing insecure in their previous years, and 17% of respondents were homeless in their previous year” (The Hope Center, 2019).

While colleges try to do their best at helping students with the resources that they have and are able to provide there are resources that they are unable to provide to the scale that they are needed, therefore they rely on the help from community partners and outside resources to help students. Many colleges are moving into having websites dedicated to directing students to outside resources while also highlighting some of the resources they may have available at a smaller scale. For example, the college of your attendance may have a small student pantry, but the website may also point out to bigger pantries around their zip code. For example, Chemeketa has a student food pantry, but the pantry can only provide a small number of items for food or a few days, but a full on pantry around the area can provide a bigger food box. Chemeketa dedicated a website just for this, for example, in the food section you can find the student food pantry at Chemeketa, food pantries around your zipcode and information on how to apply for SNAP.

Do an inventory:

Look at this website, and look at the different categories. Even if you do not need any of these resources for yourself, a classmate of your could. Being part of a school community means also being able to help others.

Looking at this website, pick three categories. It can be housing, employment, and food for example.

• What resources did you find on each of these categories?
• How many were Chemeketa resources and how many are outside resources?

Licenses and Attributions

Original chapter work is attributed to Grecia Garcia.