The Daily Bulletin Archive

Interested in learning how to better serve our homeless, food insecure, and foster youth students? The Student Life Office invites you for a conversation and repeat showing of the webinar "Homeless, Food Insecure & Foster Youth Students" on Thursday February 8, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in Campbell Student Union 415 (conference room).

The federal government announced in May 2016 that the U.S. Department of Education and college financial aid offices need to remove barriers to higher education and give more assistance to homeless and foster youth.

Each year, thousands of students indicate on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that they are homeless while accessing higher education programs. One recent study of 4,000 students attending 10 community colleges across the United States suggested that more than half of all community college students struggle with food insecurity. In addition, more than 32,000 young adults exit the foster care system as they age out to independence each year—and 70 percent of them plan to attend college, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway. Unfortunately, only 3–11 percent actually earn a degree.

Please join us on February 8 as expert presenters explain ways to implement successful support strategies at Buffalo State to help us engage, retain, and graduate our homeless, food insecure, and foster care students. Learn to decrease the unique barriers that these students face and increase their success by engaging in targeted efforts that meet their unique needs.

Participation Outcomes
You will learn

• how to define students that experience homelessness, food-insecurity, and foster care and engage in coordinated outreach efforts to help ensure their success both in and outside the classroom;
• higher education policies and guidance that support students who experience homelessness and foster care so you know exactly what you are encouraged and required to do to increase their persistence toward graduation;
• resources available to assist students who experience homelessness and foster care so you can draw upon best practices and implement targeted initiatives on our campus; and
• strategies for reaching out to at least one community-based agency to establish collaborations for increasing students' access to housing and food.

Please register for this webinar online.

Questions may be directed to Kristen Helling, assistant director of student life, 878-4631.