Basic needs insecurity among US college students is more common than one might expect, with about 1 in 4 students experiencing food insecurity and 1 in 12 experiencing homelessness. Rates of basic needs insecurity are even higher among students with marginalized identities, such as student parents, first-generation students, and students from low-resource backgrounds.
Students who struggle to meet their basic needs—or lack consistent access to income, food, housing, health, mental health and well-being, transportation, technology, child care, clothing, books, and college supplies—are more likely to have negative academic and mental health outcomes.
By addressing basic needs insecurity among college students, policymakers, human service providers, and institutions of higher education can better support students’ engagement in higher education, help more students earn valuable degrees and credentials, and create opportunities for economic mobility.
Created by Urban and its philanthropic partners, the College Student Basic Needs Network: Great Lakes Community of Practice (CSBN-GL) is a vibrant, action-oriented network working to identify policy change opportunities, tackle common challenges, and design ways to capture how alleviating basic needs insecurity can lead to positive outcomes for students.
Urban began this work in 2024 by conducting a landscape analysis of efforts to alleviate students’ basic needs insecurity in the Great Lakes region. We then hosted an in-person convening in June 2024 in Chicago to discuss these issues with state and student leaders.
Building on this momentum, this community of practice is focused on pursuing, improving, and learning from structural strategies (e.g., policy changes and partnerships) that reduce the incidence of basic needs insecurity for students—rather than responding to emergencies once they arise. Through this effort, all six Great Lakes states—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin—will have access to data, strategies, and support to help shape policies that support students' basic needs.
The community of practice convenes four times a year through virtual and in-person meetings, and each state team regularly meets to share updates, discuss shared challenges, and design and implement new policy and practice goals.
As a research and learning partner, Urban works with each state team to design approaches that leverage existing data and insights to identify how they can build evidence of impact. Urban helps states assess the effectiveness of their actions and document how they achieved promising outcomes.
Urban receives technical assistance and student engagement support from its partners, The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs and the Student Basic Needs Coalition.
The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs brings research, policy, and practice expertise that helps state teams create action-oriented strategies to reduce basic needs insecurity and achieve their policy goals. Additionally, the Hope Center for Student Basic Needs tracks, analyzes, and translates national and statewide policy trends that affect state teams’ decision-making.
The Student Basic Needs Coalition, a national nonprofit focused on alleviating students’ food, housing, and financial insecurities, ensures each state team includes an active student participant. These Great Lakes student coordinators are important members of their state delegations, helping connect students to CSBN-GL state team members, bridging gaps between students and basic needs initiatives, and ensuring that this work intentionally reflects and honors students’ lived experiences. In addition, this initiative is supported by two work groups: one focused on designing the community of practice, the other providing policy expertise.
This project is funded by the Joyce Foundation, ECMC Foundation, and Kresge Foundation.
