The Jacob Bluestein Foundation, based in New York, has awarded a $15,000 gift to the Wellesley Centers for Women to support the Higher Education Access for Parenting Students Research Initiative. The funds will allow Research Scientist Autumn Green, Ph.D., who leads the initiative, and incoming Research Associate Sarah Galison, MSW, to update the Campus Family Housing Database, a research-based tool which comprehensively identifies colleges and universities in the United States offering students the opportunity to live in college-affiliated housing with children.
The gift will also support data collection for the Find Your Way regional study of postsecondary parenting student programs, specifically in the Pacific Northwest and Western regions. (Several other regions have already been completed.) Through a collaboration with the University of Hawaii Bridge to Hope Program – a statewide partnership between the Hawaii Department of Human Services and the University of Hawaii system – Green and Galison will work with Teresa Bill, the director of Bridge to Hope, to lead parenting student researchers from across the University of Hawaii's community college and university system in completing research training, data collection, and analysis of research findings. They will comprehensively identify colleges and universities offering parenting student support services in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and the American Pacific Islands and Territories (such as Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas Islands).
“I'm really excited about this project, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Green. “The parenting students with whom we’ll be working need jobs they can do remotely, and Bridge to Hope is able to hire them through our partnership. And because of COVID-19 and concerns about program closures, it's an important time to update the Campus Family Housing Database and to begin to document and track other programs and closures.”
October 6, 2020
