Grants to help IVC students
IMPERIAL – Imperial Valley College is developing three programs aimed at assisting some of its most vulnerable population of students with the assistance of about $1 million in grant funding.
About $350,000 of those funds come from the state’s Homeless Emergency Aid Program and will go toward two new separate programs, one of which is aimed at currently and formerly incarcerated students.
An additional $600,000 has been allocated for IVC by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to develop a pilot program aimed at students experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
“We are grateful for not only the monetary support, but the validation we have received locally that housing is a basic need and key to academic success for our most disproportionately impacted students,” said Bianca Bisi, IVC Student Equity & Achievement program interim associate dean.
The programs remain in their developmental phase, while the allocated funds’ use was approved by the IVC’s Board of Trustees during its June 17 meeting.
The campus currently has about 200 students who have self-identified as homeless as defined by the McKinney-Vento Act, a piece of federal legislation that ensures the rights of homeless students to attend school.
“Of course, this number is only representative of those who have come forward, and stigma can at times discourage students from reporting,” Bisi said in an email.
The campus was one of 14 community colleges statewide that were selected in March to participate in the Chancellor’s Office’s Homeless and Housing Insecure pilot program.
The purpose of the program is to mitigate any barriers for local students in need of safe, permanent and secure housing, IVC’s draft plan stated.
The program will prioritize housing opportunities for homeless, foster, disabled, veterans and LGBTQ+ students, as well as student athletes.
IVC anticipates that at least 100 students will secure permanent housing through the pilot program. It will also create a support plan to ensure that students who either graduate and/or transfer will receive three months of follow-up services.
Its $600,000 in total funds will be spent over the course of three years. The funding will cease at the end of the three-year cycle, with the expectation that the program will continue without the Chancellor’s Office’s support, it reported.
Of the campus’ total allotment, $150,000 will go toward immediate housing needs, such as housing, hotel vouchers, and items such as mattresses, bedroom items, utility assistance and food.
Another $100,000 will annually provide about 50 participants that secure permanent housing with a $500 voucher toward their rental deposit or first month’s rent, IVC’s draft plan stated.
Marketing materials and administrative costs will total about $25,000, while $200,000 will go toward the employment of a housing program liaison during the duration of the funding cycle.
A total of $100,000 has been earmarked for the campus’ Lotus Living, Rise Above tiny home program, which aims to eventually establish a community of about 40 tiny homes in El Centro for students.
The campus is expecting its first tiny home to be delivered during the fall semester, and is currently working with the city of El Centro to finalize a lease agreement, said Elizabeth Espinoza, IVC interim communications and governmental relations officer.
Initial plans had called for the housing of four students per tiny home, but that number may be limited to two students to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19, Mendoza said in an email.
Aside from those that identify as homeless, IVC has approximately 400 students experiencing housing insecurity and an estimated 120 self-identified formerly incarcerated students.
Project DREAM, which will be funded by a $242,000 HEAP grant, is a new, stand-alone program that will provide supportive services to about 200 homeless and foster youth ages 18 to 24 to aid their transition to adulthood.
Meanwhile, about $215,000 in HEAP funds will go toward the campus’ Homelessness Diversion Program (HDP). The program will address the unmet needs of currently and formerly incarcerated students (C&FIS) in the Valley by increasing supportive services.
Though services are currently available to the C&FIS population, its growing population and demand for services has made it increasingly difficult to sustain an adequate level of support for students, the program’s proposal stated.
Both programs will run through May 31, 2021. And any funds not expended by the specified date shall be forfeited to the county, according to the grant agreement.
Campus officials have determined that many of IVC’s students are “layered populations,” meaning they initially are involved in the foster care system, are statistically are more likely to be involved in the justice system, become incarcerated, then released into the community where they are unable to secure work and eventually become homeless, Bisi said.
“These are our most resilient students, who often have higher success rates than students who are not facing these particular barriers,” she said.
The campus takes pride in its ongoing efforts to assist its most vulnerable students and has earned the recognition of the California Community College system, Bisi said.
To further hone its efforts, the campus had launched its IVC Kitchen in 2017, the Farm-to-Table Initiative in 2018, and the pending Lotus Living community project.
More recently, it surveyed its students to identify basic needs that have remained unmet as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 208 respondents, many shared experiences of hardship during the pandemic and what type of support they required to be successful.
Prior to the needs assessment, IVC officials assumed the students’ more pressing needs would be laptops and access to internet to complete distant learning coursework. As a result, campus officials had distributed laptops and internet devices from March to June.
Yet, when the survey was conducted in late May, food assistance, hygiene items, and school supplies were respondent’s top priorities during the pandemic, followed by textbooks and course software, according to the survey report released in June.
The IVC Kitchen distributes supplemental food packages from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) through an agreement with the Imperial Valley Food Bank.
Out of 208 students surveyed, 69 percent reported needing the IVC Kitchen to provide them and their family with emergency groceries.
“We often find that the food we distribute not only feeds our IVC student, but also touches the lives of children and elderly parents who are being taken care of in the home,” the survey report stated.