Literature Review #4

 

Shown above are the logo of Single Stop and a pie chart of the benefits and services they have provided or helped students gain access to

"Clearing the Path to a Brighter Future: Addressing Barriers to Community College Access and Success" by Sara Goldrick-Rab, Katharine Broton, and Christin Gates in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and prepared for the Association of Community College Trustees and Single Stop USA

Citation

Goldrick-Rab, Sara, et al. “Clearing the Path to a Brighter Future: Addressing Barriers to Community College Access and Success.” ACCT, ACCT, 10 June 2013, www.acct.org/files/Press%20Media%20Etc/ACCT_Single_Stop_USA_White_Paper_Final_06-04-2013.pdf.

Summary

The authors discuss barriers that prevent students from accessing and succeeding in community colleges. They focus on Single Stop sites as a way to assist students in need and help them overcome the barriers that impact their lives and education. They mention what Single Stops are, what they do, and how they have helped students. The report also includes a section on what can be learned from the Single Stop model and how efforts (policies, programs) to help students, especially those dealing with basic needs insecurity, can be improved or expanded.

Authors

Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab

• She is a Professor of Sociology and Medicine at Temple University, Chief Strategy Officer for Emergency Aid at Edquity, and Founding Director of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice in Philadelphia. She also founded Believe in Students, a nonprofit organization that distributes emergency aid. She is an expert in food and housing insecurity in higher education and has done extensive research in the field. I have used various sources by her due to how detailed, informative, and well-researched they are.

Dr. Katharine Broton

• She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. Her research interests include poverty, inequality, and basic needs insecurity in higher education. One of her published pieces includes Food Insecurity on Campus: Action and Intervention, another one of my sources.

Dr. Christin Gates

• She has a PhD in Education Policy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a M.Ed. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She has experience with policy, including serving as the Programs and Policy Manager for the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. Her experience with policy of varying kinds makes her knowledgeable on the policy aspect of the source.

Key Terms

• Single Stop sites- places on college campuses associated with Single Stop USA that help students and their families learn about and access federal benefits and services
• SNAP- acronym for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, a program that provides nutrition benefits to low-income families by helping them be able to purchase healthy food

Quotes

“‘I applied for [food stamps] probably two or three times and they always denied me. I’ve been on my own since I was 19, living paycheck to paycheck, in between jobs, trying to stay afloat and juggle school at the same time, but they always denied me and I never could get them. … I was able to receive the benefits after Single Stop’s help’” (Goldrick-Rab et al. 7)

“Sometimes, addressing long-term poverty among students requires resources that go beyond the current financial-aid system. Recognizing this, Single Stop brings colleges and their students into contact with the array of benefits supported by other funding streams, including: health insurance; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); federal and state unemployment insurance; child-care assistance; Women, Infants and Children (WIC); Social Security funds; and more” (Goldrick-Rab et al. 5)

“Helping community colleges make higher-education attainment possible for millions of low-income Americans requires bridging education and social policy. Education alone will never end poverty, and educational practices will never be sufficient to ameliorate the impacts of poverty on educational attainment. A more effective approach may reside in the marriage of social and educational policy strategies” (Goldrick-Rab et al. 3)

Value

This source helps me explore a current effort to support students and help those dealing with basic needs insecurity. I will use this as a case to show how such a program benefits students and helps reduce the risk of harm posed by poverty and food and housing insecurity. It also connects with my frame of Maslow’s Hierarchy by revealing how programs like these, that help students meet their physiological needs, allow them to pursue their higher needs. I will specifically use a student’s quote to show how the program helped them gain access to SNAP benefits after being denied multiple times. Additionally, I will use the benefits and successes of this program to explain why there should be a creation or expansion of similar programs. With such efforts, more students would be helped and fewer would have to worry about where their next meal would come from or where they will sleep for the night while trying to pursue a higher education.