The MI-BEST Initiative supports Michigan’ community colleges in their efforts to identify and address the systematic barriers to student success. Through this project, colleges have assessed their campus culture to increase the collective understanding of non-academic barriers to student success, understanding the needs of their students and the community, and integrate institutional and community resources into student support systems. The funding necessary to advocate for the long-term economic stability of student was made possible by ECMC Foundation.
Creating systemic structures that support student needs by design, began in January 2022 with 25 Michigan community colleges. Colleges continue to champion the work of student basic needs despite the unexpected challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The celebratory video below captures the intricacies of the project and what colleges were able to accomplish during the project.
Michigan community colleges serve over 200,000 students each academic yea. With the majority of students identifying as “non-traditional students” – adults, parents, employees, or engaged community members ensuring that all students are supported regardless of their program, enrollment date, or social capital, was of the utmost importance. Partnering with National Center for Inquiry and Improvement supported the movement towards scaling four pillars of practice that have guided the work of MI-BEST to safeguard student access to non-academic resources.
- Understand Student Needs
- Organize and Connect Supports
- Connect Partner Supports to Students
- Ensure Students Access to Supports
To learn more about the particulars that make up the pillars of practice, and how colleges grew in the practice areas, view the information listed below.
Strategy #1: Understanding Student Needs
Section one includes colleges instituting practices that enable higher education practitioners to better understand their students by identifying their needs. This also includes tracking the progress of low-income students, knowing the types of holistic supports needed by students, using multiple data sources to assess student eligibility for financial supports, tracking student use of services to improve service delivery, and engaging diverse campus stakeholders to revise colleges policies and practices. Having this knowledge empowers institutions to build structures that proactively anticipate and then support the needs of their learners.
Strategy #2: Organizing and Connecting Supports
A gives institutions the opportunity to outline the support services offered and connect students with those supports. This section guides institutions in not only assessing what resources are available to students but also exploring how services are interlinked into the student experience and intentionally marketed to students. Organizing campus resources increases the odds of students interacting with campus resources by design rather than coincidence. It also normalizes the usage of the campus resources and maximizes capacity for validating students’ experiences while responding to their needs more effectively.
Strategy #3: Connecting Partner Supports to Students
Knowing that student needs extend beyond the four-walls of a lecture room, collaboration with community-based organizations are key. This strategy encourages colleges to provide holistic supports to students by partnering with community organizations that are accustomed to offering services that would also be of benefit to community college students. Connecting students with community partner supports takes a team approach, as colleges and community-based organizations have their own areas of expertise. The mission of many community-based organizations is to serve the members of their community, and this includes college students. Connecting partner supports to students is worth investing in, as it allows colleges to remain the experts in their given areas and community organizations, the experts in theirs.
Strategy #4: Ensuring Student Access to Support
Ensuring students are made aware of and have access to supports available to them is the role of all serving students. Institutions who assess how well they communicate information about financial costs and supports, identify which students could benefit from particular support services, and embed services into the student experiences help promote student economic stability. These measures also normalize support usage and uncomplicate access to them. Offering supports is not enough; only when students actually access those supports will colleges see an increase in student persistence and college completion.
Resources From our Partners
